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The Anwar phenomen sinks Dr Mahathir and his reputation

AS DATO' SERI MAHATHIR MOHAMED PREPARES to retire at the end of October after 22 years as Prime Minister, he is haunted by his failure and missteps than his successes. He knows in his heart that for all the adulation he is regularly greeted with, he leaves office a lonely man, with no friends and no supporters. He blames that on his protege and former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. But Malaysia and Malay culture would not forgive him for that political and physical destruction. Indeed, since he sacked Dato' Seri Anwar in 1998, the good he did is forgotten, his years in office count for nothing. So he reinvents himself, rewriting events to put him in a good light. But he is still not believed he did right.

The Malaysian mainstream media regurgitates his reinventions without comment or relevance to give him an illusion of success. It built this myth of Malaysia is Mahathir and Mahathir Malaysia. In a remarkable interview with the Star newspaper, published over two days (05 and 06 October) he is questioned not on his stewardship of Malaysia but of his feelings and doubts, only to reveal his nakedness. But then no Malaysian mainstream media would ever be so as to ask what it must. One cannot but help think that the four reporters were there to ensure that neither asked the questions they should have. Which is why one foreign reporters could interview him but not one Malaysian reporter. His contempt for the local media is well known.

But gems are thrown about in abandon through the interview that hidden truths are unexpectedly revealed. Foremos amongst them is the Anwar phenomenon and how it continues to destroy Dr Mahathir's equanimity. He calls it the most difficult episode of his political career. He had to destroy a friend and protege for the country's sake, and at the cost of being labelled vengeful. He did not have anythin to do with it. It was the police who decided he must be charged. But it was the UMNO president who sacked him. He rewrites history. Dato' Seri Anwar had to be destroyed because he dared to challenge his dismissal. And brought hundreds of thousands of people out on the streets to protest his dismissal. It was a political decision, pure and simple, as his earlier move, with Dato' Seri Anwar's help, to destroy UMNO and form a Mahathir UMNO to which he would exclude a serious rival, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. Dato' Seri Anwar, likewise, was by the time of his dismissal a political rival of Dr Mahathir.

Dr Mahathir misjudged the mood. The Malay ground shifted from UMNO to the sidelines. He lost conrol of the Malay community. In the five years since, the Anwar phenemenon, though subdued, is too powerful to ignore. For UMNO and its incoming president, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, to have peace, the Anwar affair must be laid to rest. That is possible only if he is released from prison and on a free pardon. Otherwise, it would be a millstone around their necks. Where Dr Mahathir is wrong is to insist he had no role in Dato' Seri Anwar's destruction. The legal, political, and judicial charade over Dato' Seri Anwar could not have happened without Dr Mahathir's active compliance. That is clear from the interview. He is hurt than angry at what happened, and his comment on it only affirms it. He would not admit he destroyed Dato' Seri Anwar as a political rival.

He makes a curious defence of nepotism in his interview. He firmly believes his children did not flower into giants they should be. He is right on this. If they had had to fight for their place in the Malaysian sun, they would not have landed heir father in the mess which included his twisting the hands of cronies to bail them out. They had debts in the billions of ringgit. They are not clear, with must help from their father. One son, whose father-in-law is a Pak Lah crony, now joins hands with with Pak Lah's son, Mr Kamaluddin Abdullah, to go into debt under the new regime. But Dr Mahathir does not see it that way, only that they have been shortchanged. But he does mention the civil servants who could not deny Dr Mahathir's sons the licences and favours they needed. Dr Mahathir's anger at civil servants who dare defy him is too well-known to bear repetition.

If he must take credit - if credit it be - for anything, it is his systematic dismantling of government institutions. In his 22 years in office, he destroyed them so thoroughly that he cannot, when he wants to, depend on them to buttress his policies and governance. He lurched into an orgy of privatisation, all failures despite government bailouts and are now managed by the government. He ignored Parliament, and went on a spending spree without official approval and making use of the huge reserves of Petronas, the Employees Provident Fund, Tabung Haji (the Pilgrimage Fund Board) to be remembered as a great builder. But Putrajaya and other super structures are built to make Malaysia in time bankrupt. The cash cows almost all are, or would be in a decade.

When a man sees himself as the state, it is the beginning of the end. Of the state and the man. Dr Mahathir proved it in his 22 years in office. Every institution of state is destroyed beyond belief. Even UMNO. Pak Lah, on taking office, must spend the next few years to restore the status quo ante Mahathir of the state. He cannot. UMNO is so out of toucdh with its constituents that if elections are held this year, it is in trouble no matter if it is led by Dr Mahathir or Pak Lah. UMNO's investments disappeared in a flurry of unwise investments by a Mahathir-appointed Treasurer, Tun Daim Zainuddin, and who cannot - or refuses to - produce the statement of accounts. Pak Lah had better produce them. Or face further defections from its ranks. And throw his presidency in doubt and, more likely, danger.

But what rues Dr Mahathir is his loneliness. When he destroyed Dato' Seri Anwar, his support disintegrated. Only those remained who could benefit. He had a formidable team with him. Besides Dato' Seri Anwar, he had Tun Daim, the former agriculture minister and former mentri besar of Kedah Tan Sri Sanusi Junid, the defence minister and UMNO vice president Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, the former Malacca chief minister Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Tamby Chik, the international trade and industry minister Datin Seri Rafidah Aziz, the UMNO vice president and former Selangor chief minister Tan Sri Mohamed Taib, the National Front Tan Sri Mohamed Rahmat. Only Dato' Seri Najib is firmly with him now. In other words he is isolated even within UMNO.

He is now irrelevant in Malaysian politics. he says he would remain active in local politics. That is a new role for him. He has not shown any interest in local politics, preferring to travel to distant lands and bask in the ersatz glory he believes he acquires when the local media report him as the new statesman about to resolve the unresolvable problems of the world. But Malaysia and even UMNO has had enough of him. They are just too polite to say so. But the signs are there. The Pak Lah faction quietly but surely curts him down to size. Dato' Seri Najib would, on current indications, challenge Pak Lah for the UMNO presidency in June next year if he is not appointed deputy prime minister. Dr Mahathir wants no contest for the top positions in UMNO. Yet if Dato' Seri Najib would not heed it, why should any other? It is no use wishing now he ought to have by his side a man who would not: Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. The loneliness is complete.

[This is my column in the latest issue of Seruan KeADILan, the official organ of the National Justice Party, and out today, 14 October 2003.]

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com