KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 — Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s appearance at the Bersih 4 rally yesterday was “ironic” as he has always been against demonstrations, the editors of Umno-linked newspapers Utusan Malaysia and New Straits Times (NST) pointed out today.

NST’s Group Editor Datuk Abdul Jalil Hamid said Dr Mahathir’s reputation as a “man of contradictions” was shown by his Bersih 4 appearance, pointing out that the latter had just last year written against citizens going on massive street demonstrations to overthrow elected governments.

“Ironically, this is one of the paradoxes of the country’s once most powerful man, who ruled Malaysia for 22 years with an iron fist,” the group managing editor of NST’s publisher NSTP wrote in an opinion piece in the Sunday edition of the paper, New Sunday Times.

Abdul Jalil also highlighted the coincidence and symbolic nature of the Bersih 4 rally venue where Dr Mahathir had turned up, noting that Malaysians had protested there against the then-prime minister in the 1990s after he sacked his deputy Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

“It was the scene of massive anti-government protests in 1998 and 1999, seeking his ouster in the wake of the Reformasi movement,” he wrote.

Just like Anwar took to the streets after his 1998 sacking, Dr Mahathir yesterday effectively did the same to his “fight” against current prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, he said.

In an opinion piece today under the name of Awang Selamat, Utusan Malaysia’s editors said that many Malays felt uncomfortable and slighted by Dr Mahathir’s Bersih 4 appearance as he was known for his staunch objection to Bersih.

Utusan Malaysia said today Dr Mahathir had himself objected as a then prime minister to the “illegal rally culture” during the Reformasi protests by Anwar’s supporters, with the “majority” of Malaysians then also adopting Dr Mahathir’s stance to defend him from the “waves of democracy.”

“But Dr Mahathir is still fitting Dr Mahathir’s character. He can do whatever that he wants to even if it contradicts his past views and now in this matter.

“To Awang, his appearance yesterday is certainly something is tidak wajar (unwarranted) but let the public evaluate,” it wrote in the paper’s weekend edition Mingguan Malaysia.

Dr Mahathir and his wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali showed up “to see” the Bersih 4 rally in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, just hours after he told a crowd numbering in the thousands in Johor that he was “still thinking” of appearing at the rally.

In his talk in Johor, Dr Mahathir did not directly say if he was supporting the Bersih 4 rally.

He maintained that he does not favour demonstrations, but urged Malaysians to show their “people power” as alternative channels to resolve national issues were being shut down and the country’s legal system had been violated.

The Bersih 4 street rally was called to make five demands of the government. They are: Clean elections, clean government, right to dissent, strengthening parliamentary democracy and saving the economy.