Mahathir is suing Anwar for RM150 million for calling him corrupt and racist, but the trial, it seems, will be addressing all sorts of issues and going in many different directions before it finally settles on the question that is put before it.
Mahathir, it seems, is growing impatient with the way the proceedings are unfolding — complaining that many of the questions posed to him are irrelevant and remarking that he might well be dead before the case reaches its conclusion.
However, when one considers that the trial involves two men who have shaped Malaysian politics for the last two generations — and whose feud has spanned from the height of Reformasi to the present day — perhaps it is inevitable that this case will turn into something far bigger than the narrow question of defamation.
As reported by The Edge, Mahathir, now 100 years old, expressed visible frustration while on the witness stand, questioning why he was being subjected to questions about his character when he was the one who had filed the complaint. “This trial will take 10 or 15 years. I will be dead before this case is finished,” he lamented, adding that Anwar had accused him of “stealing billions of dollars,” “enriching his children,” and “hiding money overseas.”
During the cross-examination, Anwar’s counsel, Ranjit Singh, delved deep into Mahathir’s long political past — revisiting controversies from the sacking of former Lord President Tun Salleh Abas and Ops Lalang, to the VK Lingam judicial scandal and the Reformasi movement. Mahathir, clearly irritated, refused to answer some of these questions, insisting that they were unrelated to the core defamation issue.
At one point, when asked whether he regretted sacking Anwar in 1998, Mahathir curtly replied, “No.” When pressed on whether that decision had affected his reputation, he conceded only that it had done so “partially.”
Mahathir also defended his reputation as a negarawan (statesman), rejecting the suggestion that he had ruled in a dictatorial fashion. “A dictator does not resign,” he retorted — referring to his 2003 retirement. “I am regarded as a statesman based on what the people say,” he added, noting that he continued to receive international invitations to speak.
The trial, however, soon veered off course again. As NST reported, Anwar’s other counsel, Razlan Hadri Zulkifli, began questioning Mahathir about constitutional amendments, Malay political power, and even the position of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) under the current government.
This prompted Mahathir to exclaim, “The question has nothing to do with my case. I will answer on my case, which I initiated because he defamed me. He said I stole money. He said I am a scoundrel and supposedly, I am wealthy by the billions. He has not shown any proof yet. He asked to be given two weeks to do so, but now it has been two years.”
Mahathir’s lawyers, Nizam Bashir and Rafique Rashid Ali, complained that the trial was “nowhere near the sting of the suit,” arguing that it was supposed to focus on whether Mahathir had enriched himself and his family — not on decades of political disputes. The presiding Judicial Commissioner, Datuk Donald Joseph Franklin, cautioned both sides to stay within the bounds of relevancy, warning that otherwise “everyone will be sitting in court for the next 20 years.”
Still, Mahathir could not resist using the witness stand to advance his long-held political views. In another The Edge report, he claimed that Malays had “lost their political power” under Anwar, arguing that Malay parties now depended on non-Malay parties like DAP to form a government. “When I was prime minister, DAP was below me. When Anwar became prime minister, DAP is above him,” he said.
Mahathir also admitted to playing a role in the proliferation of Malay parties — from Semangat 46 in the 1980s to Bersatu and later Pejuang — though he insisted these had nothing to do with his defamation suit. When confronted with the suggestion that he had caused the Malay political split, he reluctantly admitted, “Yes,” but maintained that such matters were irrelevant to the case at hand.
At the close of the day’s proceedings, Mahathir even managed a touch of dark humour. When Razlan remarked that there would be more questions to come, Mahathir quipped, “If like this, I will live to be 200.”
In a sense, perhaps that is the most fitting metaphor for this saga. The Mahathir–Anwar rivalry has already survived political reform, regime change, and even the passing of generations. Whether or not this trial ever reaches a legal conclusion, it has already achieved something else entirely — it has brought back to centre stage the unending drama of Malaysian politics, where personal rivalries, ideological battles, and questions of power and morality are forever intertwined.
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