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We do not know when General Election is, but Tun Mahathir kicks off the BN election campaign in earnest

THE FORMER PRIME MINISTER, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, is in his unusual self of kicking off an election campaign when his successor, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, has nightmares deciding on the date. But such trifles does not bother a man whose distaste for mingling with the hoi polloi is well known. They are useful only at election time, and they do their duty only when they vote for the BN. These days that is becoming the harder, especially amongst the Malays in what is the Malay heartland of Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Trengganu. With the UMNO-led BN in a bind over the unexpectedly successful PAS inroads in his home state of Kedah, he wants to do his bit to ensure it is still an UMNO mentri besar who would be chief executive of the state. But his unusual high profile election task stems from his worry that if Kedah is lost after he departs, it is he who would be blamed. Besides, the government intelligence agencies found in several secret readings last year that it did not matter if Dr Mahathir or Pak Lah is Prime Minister, the BN results would be the same. So he comes in to pitch for a BN victory. But it did not discuss what would happen if both are in charge. He is now Kedah BN's election adviser.

Last week, he inaugurated the Kedah BN election machinery in Alor Star with a blatantly political invective on the Opposition, deliberately fudging the issues and blaming all and sundry, in an attempt to get the well-dressed BN faithful to do what he now did, and drive the Opposition out of Kedah. He poured scorn on the Opposition's efforts to wrest the state, libelled and belittled his Opponents. He is brilliant when he is in control of his audience, however angry or fed up it might be, and here he was in control. But the audience listened, said little, clapped listlessly, and hoped this speech would not bring their party candidates a drubbing at the hands of PAS. But what he said, in one sense, attests to his nervousness in Kedah after the polling. The range of his below-the-belt attacks were wide, But of such crassness that his reputation would have sunk a bit even amongst the BN leaders and worthies who were there on Friday (31 January 2004).

It was pure invective dipped in vitriol. He clearly believes that if PAS can justify a rape and murder because the victim's father is an UMNO member - it outstepped the bounds here - then it is fine for him too. He wants the BN machinery to challenge every wilful and wrong accusations from the Opposition - just as the Opposition's measured response to UMNO's attacks on it are in full swing. But would the language of the gutter bring more votes to BN, even if it is spoken by its former president? What he has done is to sharpen the animus between the two parties, in which one would push ahead its answers whilst the other would forget and disappear into the woodwork. But he cannot get away with scoring cheap points which could well redound on it. If PAS could allege that the rape-murder was divine punishment for having an UMNO father, UMNO could allege that calamities in Kelantan and Trengganu - the heavy flooding, the profusion of incest cases from the two states - were God's punishment of PAS for twisting Islam for political gain. He treads on dangerous ground here. Is he also implying that since these calamities were common when the UMNO-led BN governed the states with scant attention to religion, PAS defeated it in the two states because of it? When UMNO was in power in the two states, it could not overcome, in Dr Mahathir's words, 'God's punishment'.

He had nothing but contempt for the Opposition leaders, but he reserved his venom for the DAP's Lim Kit Siang, PAS's spiritual adviser Dato' Nik Aziz Nik Mat and PAS information chief, Dato' Harun Din. His attacks on the two were nothing new, but is wrong on Dato' Harun. He calls him a 'coward' who said he would run against him in 1999 but pulled out at the last minute. Why did he do so? He had guaranteed a loan from a Malaysian bank for a friend who reneged on it. Whenever he said he would stand in the polls, he was threatened with bankruptcy if he went ahead. That albatross is no more around his neck: the debt is paid, and he would, I understand, stand in Dr Mahathir's Kubang Pasu. He thinks he is a cheat and a fraud. Then, pray, why did he ask for his help to drive the devils and jinns that surround his official residence in Putra Jaya? Dr Harun, I understand, declined to for no reason than that it should have been done before the forest, where they resided, was cut down. It is a fact Dr Mahathir had not had a good night's sleep in his official residence. This is why he opts for a private residence in Sungei Besi.

Then he is economical with the truth about his heart operation. He did it locally, he says, because of his immense confidence in Malaysian doctors. The truth he could not go overseas because he was seriously ill and had what is thought to be a heart attack in the middle of the night. He was then planning for his operation overseas, but this made it imperative he did it here. It is after the operation that he ordered a world class heart hospital built for emergencies like this. It is now so expensive to be treated there that it is often cheaper overseas. All said and done, he says, Dato' Harun "is a trickster, a trickster who is very vocal when violating religion for political interests and to get votes". There is another side to this outburst: Dato' Harun, I understand, is the PAS candidate for mentri besar if it captures the state. He is a charismatic politician on the ground, and he has supporters even in UMNO. I think Dr Mahathir overdid his attack. But he knew what he was doing. Does this mean he has a hidden agenda, that he would not mind, if only to put Pak Lah in his place, if PAS indeed did form the state government in Alor Star. Or equally likely, he did not understand the ground he addressed. Either way it puts the BN and UMNO, not the Opposition, on the spot. So, why did he do it?

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