Ku Li dismisses Dr M's memoirs as dishonest

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah used the occasion of a book launch ceremony in Ipoh last night to castigate former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's memoirs as "political lying".

In lauding the "intellectual honesty" of the Surabaya-born and Ipoh-raised Professor Wang Gangwu, the scholar gentleman alluded to in the book's Mandarin subtitle ‘Junzi’, the Gua Musang MP lamented the quality's dearth in the political atmosphere that he said prevails in Malaysia today.

Of ‘Wang Gangwu: Junzi’, the one-time political nemesis of Mahathir said an initial perusal of the book left him with the impression that it "reflects a scholar with intellectual honesty."

"This is a rare commodity these days, particularly in the political atmosphere that we face today in Malaysia where political lying has become pervasive," offered Razaleigh.

The Umno gadfly was more scathing as he expanded his criticisms of ‘A Doctor in the House’, the memoirs of Mahathir which was launched in Kuala Lumpur earlier this week.   

"Political lying comes through the media and sometimes by writing books of memoirs. One book was recently launched under a pseudo title called, ‘A Doctor in the House’.

"I say ‘pseudo' because it is a copy-cat title of a famous British comedy film of the 1950s based on a novel by Richard Gordon. Perhaps it was deliberate, as it does reflect some comedianship, apart from political lying," said Razaleigh caustically.

Dr M’s attacks not new

He said Mahathir's book made allegations against him which were not new.

"Again I am accused of bringing the party [Umno] to court. I am also alleged to be involved in money politics during the 1987 party contest," said Razaleigh.

He then went on a peroration of denials that dripped contempt for his accuser.

"I do not have that sort of money. I have no cronies. In fact, I am against money politics. As Allah is my witness, I have not done all those things. Yet, I have always been returned every time I stood in Gua Musang.

"I never steal. I never cheat. Those who steal and cheat will have their conscience pricking them all the time, the rest of their life," asserted Razaleigh.

Almost as an afterthought, Razaleigh adverted to Wang Gangwu's lifetime of scholarship distilled in ‘Junzi’ (noble man), which is a compilation of interviews of the professor to felicitate him on his 80th birthday last year.

Like Wang, Kota Bharu-born Razaleigh is an old boy of Anderson School in Ipoh. The book launch was held in the clubhouse of ex-alumni of the school.   

The interviews for ‘Junzi’ were conducted by Asad-ul Iqbal Latif, a visiting research fellow at the Institute of South East Asian Studies in Singapore (ISEAS), the publishers of the book. Professor Wang is chairman of the institute.