– Dr Mahathir Mohamad on who he thinks the Malays are (2002)
COMMENT | Recently, twice former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad again blamed the Malays for losing this country to whoever because “… they prioritise the fate of their leaders rather than race, country and religion.”
At this point, without any awareness of the irony in muttering something like this, the old maverick demonstrates he is either deep in denial or he doesn’t recognise that his creation, a Frankenstein creature composed of various bits of fascist ideology, racism and self-serving imperatives, defines the mainstream Malay political landscape.
Of course, when you consider that DAP’s head honcho Anthony Loke said, “I told Anwar Ibrahim, as long as you can be prime minister, DAP is willing to sacrifice anything, that is my commitment to Anwar Ibrahim”, rational people realise that the main thing this country has going for it is that every community is complicit in the destruction of the country’s democratic future.
I noticed the former prime minister replaced “royalty” with “country”, and this fits his pattern because if there is one institution that Mahathir has shown more contempt for than any other, it is the royal institution, which over the decades he has battled not for any populist agendas but rather because he chafed at his power being shared.
While Mahathir attempted to...