DAP wants Dr Mahathir put on a tight leash
Yes, Mahathir is turning out to be not that easy to control after all. They thought Mahathir could be brought to heel. But Mahathir is too old to change his ways. ‘Mahathir Lama’ and ‘Mahathir Baru’ are no different. DAP thought they would use Mahathir to gain Malay votes. Now DAP realises it was Mahathir who was using them instead to become Prime Minister.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
DAP is not happy that Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad does what he likes and does not do what DAP likes. So, they want Mahathir put on a tight leash and not be allowed too much independence.
But then that is not Mahathir. If not, Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’ would not be Mahathir’s theme song. Mahathir always does things his way. He never listens to advice. When his advisors told him not to embark on steel manufacturing, ship building, car manufacturing, etc., he did not listen. He still went ahead in spite of being advised not to.
When Proton failed, Mahathir blamed Malaysia’s low population for the failure. Mahathir did not accept the fact that it was his mistake. He announced that every Malaysian family should have at least five children so that Malaysia’s population (which then was about 15 million) could touch 70 million.
Mahathir was of the opinion that Proton failed because Malaysia did not have a population of 70 million. Hence there were not enough people to buy cars. Once Malaysia’s population touches 70 million, Proton will be very successful because there will be more people to buy cars, three-four times the 1980s level, in fact.
Once Malaysia has a population of 70 million it would have the highest level of car ownership in the world (from third highest level currently)
There are now about 30 million vehicles on Malaysian roads. If Malaysia had a population of 70 million and more cars are sold we will have about 70 million vehicles on Malaysian roads. Can you imagine trying to get to work every morning with 70 million vehicles jamming up the roads and highways?
Will car prices come down once Proton sells double or triple the cars? No way, because Malaysian car prices need to match the prices in Thailand and Singapore. So, even if Proton sells more cars, the car prices will still remain the same. So why manufacture cars in Malaysia then? Better just import the cars since it is cheaper outside Malaysia and Proton will not make money anyway.
Manufacturing cars in Malaysia is not about economics. It is about ego. It is about one man wanting to prove he was right, not wrong. He needs to leave this world with an image and reputation that he was Malaysia’s greatest prime minister, a visionary, the ‘Father of Modern Malaysia’, the Mustafa Kemal Atatürk of Malaysia.
And for that Malaysians have to pay the heavy price to boost Mahathir’s ego.
Mahathir wants to be remembered as the Mustafa Kemal Atatürk of Malaysia or the ‘Father of Modern Malaysia’
But that is Mahathir. That has always been Mahathir since the 1960s, before many of you reading this were born. Pakatan Harapan keeps saying that was the ‘Mahathir Lama’. The ‘Mahathir Baru’ is different, they say. In that case, why is DAP grumbling? The way that DAP is grumbling is like the ‘Mahathir Baru’ is no different from the ‘Mahathir Lama’.
Actually, DAP knew that Mahathir would never change. DAP knew the so-called ‘Mahathir Baru’ would be the same as the ‘Mahathir Lama’, no change. But DAP needed to con the Chinese and Indians into supporting Pakatan Harapan. If not, how to get the 95% Chinese and 80% Indians to vote for Pakatan Harapan?
DAP thought at most they needed to tolerate Mahathir and his nonsense for only one year. Before the voters could get upset, they would remove Mahathir and replace him with Anwar. The deadline to oust Mahathir and replace him with Anwar was three months ago.
DAP now realises that Mahathir is a handful after all
Yes, three months ago Mahathir was supposed to be history. By today Anwar Ibrahim is supposed to be Prime Minister with DAP holding the Deputy Prime Minister’s and Finance Minister’s post. But Mahathir refuses to go. He is still fighting to stay on. And he needs to stay on because he has a lot of unfinished business, the Third Malaysian Car being just one of them.
For every day that Mahathir stays on as Prime Minister, Pakatan Harapan loses more votes. Over the last three months, Pakatan Harapan has lost most of the Malay ground they gained in the May 2018 general election. By May next year, Pakatan Harapan is going to lose quite a bit of the Chinese and Indian votes as well.
If by May next year Mahathir is still Prime Minister and Anwar has not yet taken over and DAP is not yet the Deputy Prime Minister, then DAP might as well leave Pakatan Harapan and go solo like it did once in 2001.
If Anwar does not take over as Prime Minister soon, Pakatan Harapan, and by extension DAP, are doomed
That is why DAP is grumbling. It wants Malaysians to see that DAP is not happy about what is happening in Pakatan Harapan. If DAP keeps quiet, then Pakatan Harapan is going to drag DAP down with it. This way, Pakatan Harapan can sink but DAP can swim away and not drown.
It also gives DAP a legitimate excuse to leave Pakatan Harapan if that needs to happen. DAP can show it has complained about the bad things going on in Pakatan Harapan. It can say for one year it complained but nothing happened. That means DAP has no choice but to leave Pakatan Harapan.
That way it would appear like DAP is an extremely principled party. It does not tolerate nonsense and would rather leave the government than collaborate with a bad government. The truth is, DAP knows that the government is finished anyway. So, it leaves an about-to-collapse government rather than collapse with the government. Another DAP con to fool the Chinese and Indians.
The Chinese no longer think that DAP is that clever after all and that the party may have been suckered by Mahathir
Yes, Mahathir is turning out to be not that easy to control after all. They thought Mahathir could be brought to heel. But Mahathir is too old to change his ways. ‘Mahathir Lama’ and ‘Mahathir Baru’ are no different. DAP thought they would use Mahathir to gain Malay votes. Now DAP realises it was Mahathir who was using them instead to become Prime Minister.
Yes, this is the classic the scorpion and the frog story. After getting on to the frog’s back to cross the river, the scorpion stings the frog. When asked why, since now both are going to die, the scorpion says, “This is my nature. It is what I do. I ride on your back then I kill you even if I die in the process.”
But most likely Mahathir will jump off the dying DAP frog and look for another 100 frogs from other parties. And I was told if scorpion Mahathir stings DAP and Anwar, another 100 others will come forward to support Mahathir to stay in office until the next general election, which may be called in 2022.
