What about the 60 years of Barisan Nasional misrule?
By all accounts in the Malaysian media, Dr. Mahathir’s performance this week in China was nothing short of impressive. He cancelled all the deals concluded by the previous government without literally any pushback from his hosts.
Pakatan Harapan (PH) clearly believed that the deals were lopsided in favour of the Chinese who exploited the uncomfortable financial position the previous Prime Minister, Mr. Najib Razak found himself in due to the effects of the 1MDB scandal.
While the local media was effusive in its praise of Dr. Mahathir, his various statements in China were held up internationally and most notably in rival India’s press as an example of the failure of China’s belt and road initiative (BRI), as was Mr. Guan Eng’s raising of the relative failure of a Chinese backed port in Sri Lanka.
Thus a less sanguine view of the same trip would hold that China has always had a long memory and it does not take kindly to being thwarted, and that too in such a public way to the glee of its many adversaries.
What the long-term consequences of this brash display may be is yet to be known, what is very clear is that Dr. Mahathir is increasingly demonstrating that he is still very much his own man.
Domestically too, his increasingly bold pronouncements departing from what most analysts thought were watertight promises made by PH should be puzzling given that his party, PPBM commands the fewest number of MP’s in the PH coalition.
What allows him to muddy the waters on his agreed term as PM, casually proclaim that manifesto promises may not even be fulfilled by the end of his government’s mandate, refuse to even endorse the very idea of meritocracy or review of the NEP, ignore virtually the entire country and announce another national car and extend the term of his personally appointed Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) or as one hack calls it, the Council of Endless Powers indefinitely?
The answer could lie in the obvious unpopularity of the previous government and the scale of corruption that was unearthed after their departure. Which is why every time the PH government makes a misstep on child marriages or education policy or the employment of foreign cooks, the reflexive reaction on social media is almost always “But what about the 60 years of BN misrule? We need to give PH more time.”
Which would be a perfectly acceptable response if it wasn’t for the fact that the person in charge of BN and the government for more than one third of the 60 years was none other than Dr. Mahathir himself. There was no shortage of either cronies or scandals during his first stint as PM. Nor was he a fan of a free press, dissenting students or loudmouthed opposition leaders. He used the Internal Security Act (ISA) and other assorted undemocratic means of suppressing dissent liberally and brooked no criticism.
In this stint though, he does not have the same powers and should be at least nominally accountable to the platforms and policies of his new friends. So, what allows him virtually a free pass with the media and PH supporters alike to try and create a government largely in the same mold as his previous one?
For the media in Malaysia, long unused to neutrality and knowing that its readership is generally happy with the current state of affairs it is a straightforward call to show a distinct slant towards Dr. Mahathir and PH and keep negative news and views to a minimum.
For PH supporters though, first, it could be that the surprise and relief at having got rid of Mr. Najib and his cronies is still so new that their focus is on ensuring justice is served vis a vis the various corruption scandals of the past regime coming to light now. Int his regard, the government's choice of Attorney General has been welcomed as a step in the right direction.
Second, the sheer scale of malfeasance of the previous government makes any other alternative look positively angelic in comparison. Scandals from the last 10 years seem to dwarf those from Dr. Mahathir's time and indeed all others since independence.
Finally, the PH government has acted to allow freedom of expression, repealed GST and the anti-fake news Act and generously withdrawn cases filed against civil society activists by the previous government, showing that this is not a clone of Dr. Mahathir’s previous government. Bread and butter issues are on the backburner now, at least until the SST kicks in, or the economy faces external headwinds.
Therefore, in the immediate term as long as the rest of the PH leadership can continue to be seen to be moderating Dr. Mahathir’s autocratic impulses and acting to curb corruption, they will still get the benefit of doubt from their supporters and the moderates on the other side of the political fence.
Practically of course that means that the task of controlling Dr. Mahathir's worst impulses will boil down to the ability of the only other leader in PH who can take on Dr. Mahathir- Mr, Anwar Ibrahim.
So far, he has exercised remarkable restraint in the face of some of Dr. Mahathir’s comments about him, but he must be ready to act if Dr. Mahathir uses this historic mandate to deny the wishes of all those who voted for change to a more egalitarian, meritocratic and democratic Malaysia, not just a corruption free one.
Pakatan Harapan (PH) clearly believed that the deals were lopsided in favour of the Chinese who exploited the uncomfortable financial position the previous Prime Minister, Mr. Najib Razak found himself in due to the effects of the 1MDB scandal.
While the local media was effusive in its praise of Dr. Mahathir, his various statements in China were held up internationally and most notably in rival India’s press as an example of the failure of China’s belt and road initiative (BRI), as was Mr. Guan Eng’s raising of the relative failure of a Chinese backed port in Sri Lanka.
Thus a less sanguine view of the same trip would hold that China has always had a long memory and it does not take kindly to being thwarted, and that too in such a public way to the glee of its many adversaries.
What the long-term consequences of this brash display may be is yet to be known, what is very clear is that Dr. Mahathir is increasingly demonstrating that he is still very much his own man.
Domestically too, his increasingly bold pronouncements departing from what most analysts thought were watertight promises made by PH should be puzzling given that his party, PPBM commands the fewest number of MP’s in the PH coalition.
What allows him to muddy the waters on his agreed term as PM, casually proclaim that manifesto promises may not even be fulfilled by the end of his government’s mandate, refuse to even endorse the very idea of meritocracy or review of the NEP, ignore virtually the entire country and announce another national car and extend the term of his personally appointed Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) or as one hack calls it, the Council of Endless Powers indefinitely?
The answer could lie in the obvious unpopularity of the previous government and the scale of corruption that was unearthed after their departure. Which is why every time the PH government makes a misstep on child marriages or education policy or the employment of foreign cooks, the reflexive reaction on social media is almost always “But what about the 60 years of BN misrule? We need to give PH more time.”
Which would be a perfectly acceptable response if it wasn’t for the fact that the person in charge of BN and the government for more than one third of the 60 years was none other than Dr. Mahathir himself. There was no shortage of either cronies or scandals during his first stint as PM. Nor was he a fan of a free press, dissenting students or loudmouthed opposition leaders. He used the Internal Security Act (ISA) and other assorted undemocratic means of suppressing dissent liberally and brooked no criticism.
In this stint though, he does not have the same powers and should be at least nominally accountable to the platforms and policies of his new friends. So, what allows him virtually a free pass with the media and PH supporters alike to try and create a government largely in the same mold as his previous one?
For the media in Malaysia, long unused to neutrality and knowing that its readership is generally happy with the current state of affairs it is a straightforward call to show a distinct slant towards Dr. Mahathir and PH and keep negative news and views to a minimum.
For PH supporters though, first, it could be that the surprise and relief at having got rid of Mr. Najib and his cronies is still so new that their focus is on ensuring justice is served vis a vis the various corruption scandals of the past regime coming to light now. Int his regard, the government's choice of Attorney General has been welcomed as a step in the right direction.
Second, the sheer scale of malfeasance of the previous government makes any other alternative look positively angelic in comparison. Scandals from the last 10 years seem to dwarf those from Dr. Mahathir's time and indeed all others since independence.
Finally, the PH government has acted to allow freedom of expression, repealed GST and the anti-fake news Act and generously withdrawn cases filed against civil society activists by the previous government, showing that this is not a clone of Dr. Mahathir’s previous government. Bread and butter issues are on the backburner now, at least until the SST kicks in, or the economy faces external headwinds.
Therefore, in the immediate term as long as the rest of the PH leadership can continue to be seen to be moderating Dr. Mahathir’s autocratic impulses and acting to curb corruption, they will still get the benefit of doubt from their supporters and the moderates on the other side of the political fence.
Practically of course that means that the task of controlling Dr. Mahathir's worst impulses will boil down to the ability of the only other leader in PH who can take on Dr. Mahathir- Mr, Anwar Ibrahim.
So far, he has exercised remarkable restraint in the face of some of Dr. Mahathir’s comments about him, but he must be ready to act if Dr. Mahathir uses this historic mandate to deny the wishes of all those who voted for change to a more egalitarian, meritocratic and democratic Malaysia, not just a corruption free one.
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