PETALING JAYA, March 23 — Political analyst Kamarul Zaman Yusoff has rejected social media rumours that he was cowed by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who appeared unexpectedly at a forum examining the latter’s age.
Kamarul was attending the 53rd Sinar Harian forum titled “Is Tun M Too Old to Become PM?” yesterday, and clarified that the event was meant to highlight Dr Mahathir’s strengths.
He said his reaction was simply one of surprise, as he had not expected to meet the Pakatan Harapan chairman at the event.
“Initially, I was informed by the organisers that they invited Tun Dr Mahathir to speak but that he did not respond. Hence I assumed he would not attend,” he said in a statement.
“Rather than being scared, I was instead excited at his presence. I later found out from (PPBM Youth chief) Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman that Dr Mahathir decided to attend the forum after watching its progress on live feed.
“Despite being aware that the forum would be heavily in favour of Dr Mahathir, I decided to attend all the same so that I could present alternative facts concerning his competency,” he said.
Both before and after Dr Mahathir’s arrival, Kamarul spoke of ten benchmarks to evaluate his competency, involving the legal, physical, genetical, mental, psychological, moral, demographical, intellectual, philosophical and spiritual aspects.
Kamarul said that Dr Mahathir is legally competent since Article 47 of the Federal Constitution only sets the minimum age of MPs to 21 years old, but has no maximum age.
However, he suggested that Dr Mahathir came up short in the remaining nine areas.
“Physically he is not fit given his past heart surgeries and failing three times to give speeches in the last four months. Genetically the average Malaysian male lifespan is 72.7 years old, and his siblings all passed away when they were 70 to 94 years old,
“Mentally his cognitive skills have decreased as seen in several dialogue sessions last year. Psychologically he does not qualify as he has stated in the last two years his apparent wish at not wanting to stand for the premiership,” he said.
Kamarul argued that Dr Mahathir also lacked the moral standing as he previously criticised some younger politicians as being too old to serve.
“I later took the opportunity to point out how Dr Mahathir does not philosophically qualify as Pakatan Harapan’s Manifesto promises all kinds of change. But change is stressful and associated with the younger generation whereas their elders are associated with stability.
“Lastly I said Dr Mahathir does not fit the demographic aspect since 69.7 per cent of Malaysians are between 15 to 64 years old, as well as global trends which have seen the rise of world leaders in their 30’s and 40’s,” Kamarul said.
He attempted to remind Dr Mahathir that he was spiritually disqualified, citing admonishments in the Quran. When the other panelists said there were not capable younger leaders, Kamarul proposed the problem could be solved by amending Article 47, to set the maximum age limit for MPs as 75 years old.
“Intellectually speaking, I questioned Dr Mahathir as to how he could serve as a capable prime minister if he could not control Pakatan Harapan, as well as (avoiding) becoming a puppet to other DAP-dominated leaders,” Kamarul said, adding he was satisfied at Dr Mahathir’s responses.
Kamarul had also hoped the audience would ask questions to enable him to criticise Dr Mahathir openly, but the chance for viewers to ask questions was closed off ‘unfairly’.
“Dr Mahathir’s attempt to challenge me into criticising him publicly is amusing, since he should have joined the forum from the start instead of coming in half-way. I am aware of the prolonged trolling by his staunch supporters but no matter, for one turn deserves another,” he said.
