MARCH 9 — I thought it undue tribute to say that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad “drove Tun Abdullah Badawi out of office”.

In 2004, the electorate celebrated Mahathir’s stepping down, and gave Abdullah an overwhelming mandate to effect changes. Then the reforms fell short, with the non-implementation of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) often cited as his single biggest failing. The second was the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC), which provided good reading but didn’t serve society, when it remained the prime minister’s call.

These are arguably the two most critical instruments essential for good governance but Abdullah let pass. Abdullah didn’t live up to the enthusiastic expectations of the 2004 voters and BN got punished in 2008.

I was told Abdullah felt deep personal responsibility for 2008. And as he was nearing 70, and had just remarried in 2007, he decided it was time to pack up. He exemplified the “old school”, where dignity and honour count.  I will concede that Mahathir’s hounding could have caused Abdullah’s retirement to be brought forward a few months, but certainly he didn’t drive our fifth prime minister out of office!

And it assuredly wasn’t prompted by his concern for BN’s polls performance; but rather the “crooked bridge” he was denied.

Trying to rewrite his legacy

In 2006, Mahathir in seeking to be a general assembly delegate from his Kubang Pasu division was placed ninth out of 15 contestants. Only the first seven were selected. He had planned to “speak up” but was dashed. Don’t we wonder how a 22-year prime minister who spent 30 years in the division can be snubbed just three years into retirement? Could he have been so disliked … but feared, or that “money politics” during his time, actually did him in?

I was 27 when Mahathir became prime minister and took to him rather quickly because he was smart, decisive and articulate. 

Then it became increasingly clear he wasn’t building on the Alliance/BN model of the Malaysian dream. Highly regarded MCA president Tan Sri Lee San Choon, mentored by Tun Tan Siew Sin, stepped down 11 months after leading the party into its most successful outing in 1982; winning 24 out of 28 parliamentary seats and 55 out of 62 state seats contested.

San Choon, a leader in the Merdeka generation mould, said in an interview 17 years later, that Umno (inferring Mahathir) had preferred him to lose in Seremban (against DAP’s chairman).

His successor, Tan Koon Swan, another strong leader, was also dispatched, albeit differently. Strong coalition leadership wasn’t desirable. Look at MCA now.

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Tun Musa Hitam and even Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim were solid party president/prime minister materials. They were “fallen out” from the queue. Who would come close to these personages now?

Collateral damage

Datuk Shafee Yahaya, the former Anti-Corruption Agency director-general (1994-98) was a casualty as told in the book The Shafee Yahaya Story by his wife Datin Kalsom Taib. It was related how Shafee was hauled up by Mahathir for acting on a complaint against a top management staff of the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), even though a large wad of cash was actually found in his drawer.

The judicial crisis of 1988, when the Lord President (now Chief Justice) and five Supreme Court justices (now Federal Court judges) were removed, was a direct assault on the third branch of our parliamentary democracy. Three were sacked and three suspended. If this incident never took place, and the “Umno 11” case had proceeded under those judges, Mahathir’s tenure could have been cut short.

Anyway, it is debatable how far the judiciary has recovered from this shameful blot.

Datuk Zaid Ibrahim did well to make some restitution to these six judges during his brief period as a minister looking after law nearly 20 years later.

In his book Malaysian Maverick, author/journalist Barry Wain claimed Mahathir squandered an estimated RM100 billion on financial scandals during his 22-year rule. Mahathir never carried out his initial threat to sue Wain.

He implanted religion as a serious political item to out-politicise PAS and by 2001, he claimed that Malaysia was already an Islamic state. Then in 2014, he says we are neither an Islamic state nor a secular state, but just an ordinary state that recognises Islam as the official religion of the country. We have been working on the mend ever since.

For some one-and-a-half years he has been asking Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib to step down, purportedly to save Umno but it didn’t gain sufficient traction. But this constant hammering could have permeated Umno’s core support somewhat by now. So if Umno actually loses in GE14 he can say, “I told you so …” The party’s loss will be another collateral damage, like many other casualties before. The New Straits Times’ decline, I will argue, was a direct collateral damage, from the clampdown of The Star in 1987, which included Sin Chew and Watan (defunct).

Mahathir, like all of us, has every right to criticise whomever and whenever, but he has the least right to use Save Malaysia, unless he first apologises to all Malaysians unreservedly, including those ISA detained during Operation Lalang, and the “forever scarred” Sabah from Project IC.

To note — the Najib pounding started before 1MDB became contentious, and the RM2.6 billion was non-existent.

Postscript

All Malaysians have a right to be concerned with how Mahathir had constrained democratic practices in Umno during his time. After all, our nation’s prime ministers and senior ministers all came from that party.

It is enough that the inspiring “Malaysia Boleh” became a joke during his administration. My country mustn’t have to endure any Mahathir-infused administration at any levels anymore.

Enough!

Have mercy on Malaysia!

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.