Mahathir is an overbearing and ambitious Malay politician who is losing his power and influence; His anti-China pro-America true colors will eventually be exposed! ~ Sahabat Rakyat Malaysia

Mahathir is an overbearing and ambitious Malay politician who is losing his power and influence

His anti-China pro-America true colors will eventually be exposed!

ORIGINAL：马哈迪是一个失势的马来政治枭雄, 其反华亲美的面目终究是会暴露的!

Author: Tan Seng Hin @ Chen Xin

(Member of Sahabat Rakyat Working Committee)

Translated By: Ang Pei Shan / Yong Siew Lee

(Secretariat members of Sahabat Rakyat Working Committee)

【Text below is translated from original version in the Chinese language published on 27 April 2018. In the case of any discrepancy between the English rendition and the original Chinese version, the Chinese version shall prevail.】

Picture above: The historical facts of the 22 years rule of Mahathir in Malaysia (1981-2003) have proven that: Mahathir is a heinous racist, he is also the biggest root of turning Malaysia in a corrupted country. In the last general election (2013), Lim Kit Siang still deemed Mahathir as “a racist who would rather die than repent his sins”, and in this upcoming general election (2018), he put Mahathir on the throne as Pakatan Harapan leader and as the future Prime Minister – Will Mahathir gain strong support from the people of all ethnic groups? Will Pakatan Harapan led by Mahathir win the election? We will know the answer of these two questions from the result of polling day on 9-May and from the political game after the election.

On the evening of 21 April, Sahabat Rakyat published my article (in Chinese version) entitled "Why is Mahathir strongly against “China’s investments”? How does his remark affect the upcoming election?" I made an inference in the conclusion paragraph that “Mahathir's ‘anti-China’s investments’ remark will inevitably create an adverse effect on Pakatan Harapan (Democratic Action Party in particular) winning the parliamentary and state seats,” which includes “The ultimate outcome will reflect in a concentrated way where DAP may lose some Parliamentary and state seats contested. It will be much regretted if this unfortunately happens to the constituencies contested by the ‘key leaders’ of DAP.” On the evening of the next day (22 Apr), I read on the internet an interview with Lim Kit Siang, the de facto leader of Democratic Action Party (DAP) conducted by Xiao DeXiang from Oriental Daily. Following are the key points made by Lim Kit Siang in the interview:

(1) Regarding the controversy about DAP’s recent candidate arrangement of Skudai state seat (herein refers to the case where Boo Cheng Hau was pushed out and replaced with Tan Hong Pin as the candidate), Lim Kit Siang has no intention of guessing whether party members will end up “fighting each other”. He has absolutely no way out but to admit that he might even lose his Parliamentary seat in the wake of the impact resulted from the abovementioned controversy.

(2) With regard to Lim's cooperation with Mahathir and naming Mahathir to lead Pakatan Harapan, Lim said he agrees that the administration during Mahathir's rule was the beginning of all chaos. However, he will not let Mahathir to defend what he (Mahathir) did in the past. He can understand the psychological burden of the Chinese voters. But for the sake of the country's future, we should go beyond the emotional problems with Mahathir.

（3） Regarding the question about Mahathir and Najib are “jackals of the same lair”, Lim Kit Siang said that Mahathir and Najib's conducts are not comparable. Najib has now brought the country to the brink of collapse – If the country is unable to rectify them in future, Malaysia's politics will move towards the direction of rogue-like democracy, this is not the direction of the entire nation wishes to see. I believe it is a right decision to join hands with Mahathir to oust Najib.

▼Screenshot of the photo and report title of the interview by Oriental Daily

Source： www.Orientaldaily.com.my/s/240130#

[Interview] Controversy over Skudai state seat “I might be losing”

Lim Kit Siang's interview aroused some doubts

Lim Kit Siang's interview above will easily create some doubts as follows:

Firstly, why did Lim Kit Siang only worry about the impact resulted from the controversy over the candidate arrangement of Skudai state seat that might cause him to lose the Iskandar Puteri (formerly known as Gelang Patah) Parliamentary seat, but never thought about the adverse effect on the three original parties of Pakatan Harapan (especially DAP) from “joining hands with Mahathir” and “tout Mahathir as the leader”? How could DAP senior leaders follow Lim's saying that “for the sake of the country's future, we should go beyond the emotional problems with Mahathir, join hands with Mahathir to oust Najib”, but could not follow what the grassroots hope for “in order to promote the normal development of the party, and to oppose hegemonic rule effectively, the party should embrace and accept members with different opinions who have the support of masses, who are enthusiastic to continue making contribution?”

Secondly, Lim Kit Siang cleverly stated that “administration during Mahathir’s rule was the beginning of all chaos” but “Najib has now brought the country to the brink of collapse”. However Lim did not (and never) cite any facts or evidence to prove that the 22 years of corrupted “administration” of Mahathir which was disastrous to the country and the people (these are the exact words of Lim in Mandarin), comparing to Najib’s “crime” of extorting heavy taxes and levies on the people, stealing national treasury (this is the meaning of Lim’s saying), how the former is merely a minor harm while the latter is an unforgivable crime. The broad masses (especially non-Muslims), from their own experience of the 60 years of Malay hegemonic rule since independence, have deeply recognised that Mahathir and Najib are “jackals of the same lair”(in other words, they are both important representatives of the Malay hegemonic ruling clique), and the political leaders who lead the people of all ethnic groups to carry out the so-called “reform” yet tell the masses who are longing for “change”(Ubah) to: oust Najib, and let Mahathir to become “twice-cooked Prime Minister” (direct translation from the Chinese phrase “huiguoshouxiang”(回锅首相), which means return to power as the Prime Minister), then this will “save Malaysia” — How can this not be perplexing?

Thirdly, Lim Kit Siang has been expending so much effort to distinguish the differences between Mahathir and Najib’s performance during their rule over the country when leading UMNO in different period of time; and build the strategy of “making use of Mahathir to oust Najib to capture Putrajaya” based on his own judgment. This strategy was put forward and actively propagated and advocated by DAP after being accepted by Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), then Parti Amanah Negara (PAN). Why couldn’t Lim and DAP’s tacticians spend some time and effort to seriously think about what governing strategy that Najib deployed to save the country (herein refers to avoiding the collapse of his regime) in the face of the following scenarios: the economic downturn of Western countries and Malaysia can no longer rely on them; the increasingly difficult life of the people of all ethnic groups (especially the working class and even the petty bourgeoisie); the worsening of abuse of power, corruption and rent-seeking behavior of the government officials; and the intensifying strife among different factions within the ruling clique.

Why didn’t the leaders of the major opposition coalition (herein refers to DAP, PKR and PAN) develop an effective strategy to deal with such situation? They just watched Najib seizing the opportunity to get our country on the bandwagon of the “Belt and Road” initiative driven by China (herein refers to the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road). Except for some meaningless mockeries such as “Belt and Road, MCA lead the road” from some grassroots members of the parties, Mahathir has continually making “anti-China's investments” remark, and even saying arrogantly that “Pakatan Harapan will review China's investments, will stop the borrowing etc if Pakatan Harapan comes to power”. Two young leaders of DAP who were echoing Mahathir had then stopped making those remarks as the general election looms.Do Mahathir's remarks represent Pakatan Harapan (particularly DAP)? Shouldn't Lim Kit Siang (and Anwar and Mat Sabu) make a clear statement soonest possible?

The “Belt and Road” initiative is one of the long-term strategies for the state development that China began to promote in 2013. "Belt" is the land based Silk Road whereas "Road" is the ocean-going Maritime Silk Road, all with China as the starting point. The land route stretches from east to west, the ocean route stretches from north to south, developing transportation links to connect the entire Eurasian continent. The orange-yellow circle（the right one） above shows the location of the Melaka Gateway in the Straits of Malacca. China has already invested large sums of money and is rapidly building this world-wide port that is of strategic significance to both Malaysia and China. After the completion of this port, it will replace Singapore as the largest port in the region.

The reasons and background of Mahathir strongly opposes China’s investments

I pointed out in “Why is Mahathir strongly against “China's investments”? How does his remark affect the upcoming election? ” that there are two real purposes of Mahathir opposing China's investments: Firstly, to use “anti-China's investments” position as bait to fish Malay votes to wield power; secondly is to obstruct the strategic deployment of Malaysia and China. The followings are further elaboration of the reasons and background behind Mahathir and his clique strongly opposing China's investments and obstructing the strategic deployment of Malaysia and China.

(1) The reason why Mahathir opposes China's investments is determined by the position and interests of himself, his family, his cronies, and the Malay bureaucrat-capitalist consortium he propped up -

Mahathir took control of our country's regime for 22 years long (1981-2003). That was also the golden era of UMNO hegemonic rule. During his rule, he did his utmost to implement the economic policy which “prioritises the bumiputras” (the Malay supremacy in essence) and successfully propped up a number of Malay bureaucrat-capitalist consortium and corporates. In particular, (1) under the pretext of privatizing the national business, let his family and cronies control over those high-profit and low-risk (or even risk-free) businesses of important industries to accumulate great wealth; (2) Under the pretext of propping up entrepreneurs bumiputras, he plundered many large-scale enterprises long established by the Chinese in Malaysia at whim for his family and cronies, even big corporates owned by the famous magnate like Robert Kuok was not spared, let alone other Chinese corporates. In short, under the domination of Mahathir, his family and cronies gained a lot of profits, whereas other businessmen were suffering [mainly Chinese businessmen (regardless big, medium or smalls scale), including medium and small-sized Malay businessmen and very few of Indian businessmen].

Najib jumped on the bandwagon of “Belt and Road” Initiative driven by China (herein refers to the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road), which has managed to and will continue to draw large sum of investments from China's enterprises in the basic infrastructure of our country such as Malacca Gateway, Kuantan's deep-water port and Klang's third port and the forthcoming East Coast Rail Link project connecting between Klang and Kuantan ports, then from Kuantan to the north, directly connected with Kota Bahru, Kelantan. These constructions will bring a new better turn for our economy. Some people therefore spread the arguments that “Najib is selling our sovereignty to China”, “the emergence of “China's enclave” in Malaysia”, and the “economists say these are ‘White Elephant Projects’” – these are obviously political propaganda of “oust Najib, sabotage China” raised by some kind of professional politicians who have an axe to grind. In spite of this, the working class, the petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie of all ethnic groups will be anticipating the investments and development from China.

Only Mahathir and his family, his cronies, and the consortium enterprises and individuals who still rely on his shield are panicked with China's investment. They are deeply worried that China's investment in our basic infrastructure development followed by the greater development of the economy of both countries and the enhanced relationship between both countries will threaten or even waver the dependency on Western countries’ economy. The source of their vested interested will then be harmed or even disappear. They are even more worried that Najib's ruling clique will continue to wipe them out ruthlessly after they win power in the 14th general election (GE14).——These are the reasons and background of why Mahathir so desperately wanted to contest in the election and chants “oust Najib, oppose China's investment”.

(2)　The reason of Mahathir obstructing the strategic deployment of Malaysia and China is mainly determined by: 1) His reactionary status and role shaped by his role of being an important representative of the Malay bureaucrat-capitalist who has been implementing Malay hegemonic rule and state Islamisation that he has been advocating all this while; 2) His stubbornness/obstinacy demonstrated through his overbearing and ambitious political mindset even after losing his power and influence.

The people of all ethnic groups in our country (particularly the Chinese and Indian communities) have experienced 22-year rule and oppression by Mahathir and have basically known and understood that: Mahathir is a racist. Even though today Lim Kit Siang keeps saying that “for the sake of the country's future, we should go beyond the emotional problems with Mahathir”, when Pakatan Rakyat was still in existence in 2013, he not only affirmed that Mahathir is an domineering and autocratic racist, he also deemed him as a racist who would rather die than repent his sins.

To the Chinese community, Mahathir has always been an overbearing and ambitious politician who is accustomed to using the Chinese economy and Chinese education topics to incite Malays' sentiments in hating the Chinese to consolidate Malay hegemonic rule. People can hardly forget how harsh did Mahathir repress “the Malaysian Chinese Organisation Election Appeals” (Suqiu) in 1999 and how he settled an old score with the leadership of the Chinese associations in 2000 (openly equating them to the “Communist”, secretly carrying out persecution that could not be seen by others). To the Indian community, Mahathir is a devil who is good at mastering their weaknesses (of the Indian community) and ruthlessly marginalizing them completely. Not to mention the other minorities.

Mahathir stepped down in 2003 and was succeeded by Abdullah Badawi. Badawi had his own ideas and plans, he very decisively cancelled projects such as “Malaysia-Singapore crooked bridge” which Mahathir had ulterior motive in. Mahathir’s hope on Badawi implementing all his plans was shattered. In 2009, Najib succeeded Badawi and wisely shed from Western domination and strengthen the cooperation with China. In 2013, Malaysia and China's relationship was upgraded to comprehensive strategic partnership – This is a great thing for the government and the people of Malaysia and China. However, it is a bad thing, a fatal blow instead for Mahathir, his family, his cronies, and the consortium that he shields!

Seeing that Najib has successfully led Malaysia to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership with China, Mahathir will naturally think that:

(1) If the Malaysia-China strategic partnership blossoms, the economy of Malaysia and China will soon be booming. “Oust Najib” will have a longer and more difficult journey way to go, or even impossible.
(2) Looking at the current situation, the Malaysia-China strategic partnership is the key to the survival and development of Najib and his ruling clique. To defeat Najib, one must first undermine the Malaysian-Chinese strategic partnership.

- These are the reasons and background of Mahathir and his faction are obstructing or even undermining the Malaysia-China strategic partnership.

Conclusions

Followings are my conclusions:

Mahathir all the while for such long has been carrying out his racial hegemonic rule on the people of all ethnic groups, this has placed him and his faction on the opposite side of the people of all ethnicities. This has determined that Mahathir and PPBM are unable to win the support of the people of all ethnic groups (including the broad Malay masses. Of course there will still be some Malays who continue to be deceived and misled by him). In any case, the dream of Mahathir to become "twice-cooked Prime Minister” cannot be realised!
Mahathir is an overbearing and ambitious Malay racist politician who loses his power and influence as being pushed out from the UMNO hegemonic ruling clique. Now in order to protect the interests of himself, his family, cronies and the consortium, he is obstructing the strategic deployment and the economic development between Malaysia and China. This has determined that Mahathir and his clique will stand at the opposite side of China, his anti-China pro-America appearance will eventually be exposed!

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