COMMENT | Mahathir's unfinished business

COMMENT | To be honest, I’m not very happy with myself for bringing up Dr Mahathir Mohamad again in this column. But then, he is such an enigma, isn’t he?

I have consciously refrained from picking the good doctor as a subject after last November’s GE15, thinking that he would surely retire for good. We should let him be and allow him to enjoy his sunset years in peace and tranquillity, or so I thought.

But no, Mahathir is still in favour of hogging the limelight, declaring on Wednesday that losing his deposit in Langkawi in the recent election will not prevent him from speaking up and voicing his opinions.

"For me, every truth needs to be stated even if only one person hears it. If no one is listening, the truth still needs to be told. As long as there is life, I will continue to voice what is not right even if it is bitter to be heard by certain groups,” Mahathir said.

So, the nonagenarian is still fair game. He will not fade away, not anytime soon. It’s obvious he still relishes, if not craves, for public spotlight and adulation.

It is also plain and clear that for Mahathir, there is always “unfinished business”. There will always be tasks he has to deal with or work on. To the man, there is always something not completed, and his attention is required.

Don’t expect a strong character like Mahathir to listen to others, his family members included, that his work is done and he should take life easy in happy retirement.

I believe that even his children wouldn’t dare whisper that into his ears as they should know their father. Nobody tells Mahathir what to do. When he talks to you, you listen. It’s one-way traffic!

In Mahathir’s own words, “as long as there is life”, he will continue to speak up on issues that matter to him.

Without his active forays…

And the man means what he says as we witness his active forays in recent days into politics and national affairs, without which life would probably hold little meaning to him.  

On Feb 20, Mahathir announced that he was considering joining Putra, a political party led by a former Umno man, Ibrahim Ali.

OMG! Joining another political party at the age of 98? No one else in this country can or will ever think of doing that, except Mahathir. Think or say what you like, a salute is still due to our grand old man.

The maverick Ibrahim is a known Mahathir ally. His parting ‘gift’ to Ibrahim before stepping down as prime minister in 2003 for the first time was to appoint Ibrahim as the deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Legal Reforms).  

I recall meeting Ibrahim in a hotel in downtown Kuala Lumpur soon after he was appointed a deputy minister, and noticed that he was grinning from ear to ear. Good for Ibrahim! He probably deserved the post, given his many years of loud and boisterous support for Umno.

Before there were Jamal ‘Red Shirt’ Yunos, Bung ‘F You’ Mokhtar or Tajuddin ‘Kiss Kiss’ Abdul Rahman, there was Ibrahim Ali. I’m sure one is able to place the man in the correct category of Umno misfits.

Ibrahim had also established an NGO called Perkasa many years ago and at one point, Mahathir had served as its adviser.

The two-time former prime minister also said Ibrahim’s fledgling party, Putra, was an option open to him in order to continue his struggle for the Malays and Islam.

Interestingly, on the other side of the planet and on the same day, it was revealed that a fellow nonagenarian, 99-year-old former US President Jimmy Carter has "decided to spend his remaining time at home in Plains, Georgia, with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention." This came after the humanitarian took a series of short hospital trips.

Possibly two of the world’s longest-surviving former heads of government, Mahathir and Carter are two blessed souls indeed. They must have done something good and right for the nation and peoples they once governed for the One Above to grant them such a great favour of longevity.  

Mahathir was again in the news over the past two days.

On Feb 22, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim issued a legal letter demanding an apology and compensation from PAS’s Pendang MP Awang Hashim over the latter’s alleged false claims that he (Anwar) is purportedly more vengeful than former prime minister Mahathir.

The comments were reported to have been made in relation to Bersatu’s Tasek Gelugor MP Wan Saiful Wan Jan being charged with two bribery charges on Tuesday.

Yesterday, Mahathir was quoted in Berita Harian as arguing that he should not be blamed for the country's political crisis after stepping down as Malaysia's seventh prime minister in late February 2020.

He also revealed the real reason why he didn't let Anwar become prime minister. That’s water under the bridge now and I don’t think I wish to bore readers with recycled stories. So, I will leave it at that.

But that’s Mahathir. Expect him to be in the news more regularly as he must surely be watching Anwar’s unity government with a hawk’s eye.

With the impending state elections, Mahathir will definitely be in the thick of the campaign when the polls are underway.

I’m sure we all wish Mahathir well as he goes about dealing with his unfinished business, irrespective of what we think or feel about him.

FRANCIS PAUL SIAH is a veteran Sarawak editor and heads the Movement for Change, Sarawak (MoCS). He can be reached at sirsiah@gmail.com.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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