End of Mahathir and Bersatu

It seems that we keep some folks are just so desperate for attention that they are willing to say anything just to elicit a response.

In another Malaysiakini interview, Mahathir to the shock of no-one, admitted that the PN government was trying to get him on board.

This is nothing new of course, after all, it was Mahathir’s own folly that gave us this government in the first place.

Who can forget the shocking turn of events at the start of the pandemic, where the resignation of Tun Dr Mahathir following his party BERSATU’s withdrawal from the Pakatan Harapan coalition led to the fall of the 22-month-old government?

What was more shocking was his U-turn to burn all bridges with either MN or PH, by calling for a unity government without the inclusion of many of his cabinet members from Pakatan Harapan.

This of course cements the theory that it was a power grab by Tun Dr Mahathir all along. This is eerily reminiscent of the 1988 judicial crisis, which saw the judiciary of the country shaken to the point of no recovery.

Why should we continue entertaining the old man?

In his pursuit of his “imagined” Malaysia, Mahathir had turned UMNO and the component parties of Barisan Nasional into a powerful patronage machine – a literal “one-stop shop for handouts and favors”. In order to push whatever “reforms” he saw necessary he crippled every single institution that was supposed to serve as a check and balance to an overreaching executive.

He often sacrificed integrity to secure obedience–and when he couldn’t hand an institution to a loyalist, he would bypass them altogether.

The check and balances established by our founding fathers were dismantled by the same individual who holds power today and ironically it seems that he’s trying to “reform” it in Malaysia Baru in the same manner.

Now it will take time to reform the fundamental flaws our constitutional system in Malaysia that Mahathir created in his first term, but should we trust him alone to fix the system that he broke? On top of the long list of items on the reform agenda?

These include the agenda to correct the national economy and finances and the monumental task to clean up the mess of 1MDB, FGV, Felcra, TH, LTAT and many other mega scale scandals that have bled the nation dry.

Last but not least, there is the need to work out a greater understanding and consensus with royalty on the rule of law and system of constitutional monarchy as the foundation to our democracy.

If we are really to move towards Malaysia Baru, then it will perhaps require a rethink of how what kind of check and balances are required in an objective manner – and that means ignoring the narratives that were prevalent in the Mahathir era.

It must be disheartening for Tun Dr Mahathir to see his one last gambit to fall apart, as his final moments in power ended. One year on, we are still reminded that we are infinitely better off without him.