History Will Come Back to Haunt Us

Karamjit Gill

Most people have heard one version or another of the following quote, “Remember, what you do now will come back and haunt you in the future. Life has a funny way of making you deal with what you make others go through.”

The provisional deregistration of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) comes as a firm reminder that karma exist. In his book ‘Government and society in Malaysia’, Australian political science scholar and author, Harold Crouch, revisited the birth of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s Umno Baru.

During the constitutional crisis in Umno in the late 80’s, a new party called Umno Malaysia was formed under the leadership of the late Tunku Abdul Rahman with his deputy being the late Tun Hussein Onn. However, the Registrar Of Societies (ROS) rejected the application for the party formation. Tunku and Hussein formed an alliance to go against Mahathir for his ill demeanour. The ROS is part of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Mahathir was the minister then. As with everything else, if asked, Mahathir would of course deny his involvement in pulling the brakes on Umno Malaysia.

A leading Asean commentary site, ASEAN Today, has drawn similarities between the happenings to Mahathir today with Tunku between 1987-1990. Their analogy summed that what Mahathir did to Tunku has come back to haunt and taunt him. Despite being in poor health and confined to a wheelchair, Tunku traveled the country with a determination to stop Mahathir. Tunku too gave scathing interviews to foreign media, very much like Mahathir in recent times.

Tunku wrote in a highly influential and inflammatory weekly column, “As I See It”, in the Star newspaper. He often criticised Mahathir and his authoritarian mannerism. Following Mahathir’s Ops Lalang in 1987, the publishing permits of three newspapers were revoked, the Star being one of them. Six months later when the Star was permitted re-publication, the sitting government led by Mahathir allegedly gave strict orders to discontinue Tunku’s column.

Mahathir has also been known as a global ‘ambassador’ for election rigging during his time. From Project IC to gerrymandering, Mahathir violated every rule in the book to continue his tyranny. Despite street demonstrations and rallies across the country, the opposition could only shed tears. Presently, Mahathir is on the opposite bench with the mammoth task of upsetting the governing coalition.

Mahathir relied on Malay supremacy and used favouring the Chinese community as an excuse to force Tunku to resign. Tunku’s fairness towards all races was cunningly centrifuged to form a toxic poison. Today, Mahathir is heavily relying on the same Chinese community for support.

Macroscopically, the Chinese seem to be rallying behind him, but only the election results will reveal the true story. Analysis of the Teluk Intan (42% Chinese voters) and Sungai Besar (31% Chinese voters) by-elections showed that some of the Chinese votes swung back to BN. In East Malaysia, Sarawak Elections painted a similar picture. 

Tun M is still bent on carrying out his race-based policies by even having a specific section in their election manifesto to woo the Indians. Recently, an international research firm, Fitch Group, gave the manifesto a thumb down. Selangor state government think tank Darul Ehsan Institute (IDE) has recently stated that the manifesto does not seem to weave any influence on the voters. Furthermore, the Indian section of the manifesto received flak for copying the Malaysian Indian Blueprint (MIB) of the BN Federal Government.

The travesty endured by the Indian community was squarely blamed on Tun Samy Velu and is wholeheartedly accepted by PH and their supporters. Meanwhile when Najib says he was unaware about the 1MDB dealings & operations, people went ape.

History is the best teacher. Errors of the past are wisdom and success of tomorrow. Malaysia’s Father of Independence passed on at the age of 87, with Mahathir very much in control of the government. With history clearly shadowing Mahathir.

Do as you might, one cannot go against the law of nature.