On 27 March 2023, Dr Mahathir was quoted to have urged the Malays to reject Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's government.
In a press conference on 7 June 2006, Mahathir claimed that Abdullah Badawi (Pak Lah) had not been his first choice as successor but second after Najib Razak. He said even though Najib received the highest votes, he decided to choose Pak Lah anyway.
Mahathir, however, did not substantiate and explain in what circumstance was the vote count for.
And it cannot be a vote between the Deputy President and the 3 Vice President on who should succeed Mahathir as the Prime Minister because by convention, the Deputy President of UMNO will succeed the President when he retires or step aside or resign voluntarily.
Pak Lah eventually steps down as Prime Minister in June 2010 and hand over power to Najib Tun Razak.
6 years later, in April 2015, Mahathir called on Najib Razak, whom he handpicked to succeed Pak Lah in 2010, to resign accusing Najib of being a greater failure than his predecessor Pak Lah.
In Feb 2020, even though Mahathir claimed he resigned as Prime Minister because he lost the support of his party, many Malaysians believe that the raison d’etre for his resignation was to stop Anwar from succeeding as the Prime Minister. Since his resignation in 2002, Mahathir has called on 2 successive Prime Ministers, both of whom were handpicked, to resign.
Pak Lah voluntarily threw in the towel without much of a fight while Najib was ousted when BN lost in the May 2018 General Election. He did not manage to pull the rugs on the 2 recent Prime Ministers, PM8 and PM9 as both their tenure were very short lived, 17 months and 14 months respectively.
But that does not stop Mahathir from calling for the Malays to reject Anwar’s government only 4 months after he was appointed as PM10. His main reason calling for the Malays to reject Anwar’s government was that he claimed the present unity government does not represent and take care of the interests of the Malays. Later, he claimed that the Malays lost everything after he resigned in Feb 2020.
After he resigned in Feb 2020, there were 2 successive Prime Ministers before Anwar became the 10th PM. Based on his claim that the Malays had lost everything from the time he resigned in Feb 2020, how worse off are the Malays during the reign of the 2 successive PM i.e PM8 and PM9?
During this period from Feb 2020 to Nov 2022, why didn’t he called for the ouster of either one or both the Prime Ministers since he claimed that the Malays lost everything after he resigned in Feb 2020? Why did he allow the position of the Malays to 'deteriorate' to losing everything to a worse off position after he resigned in Feb 2020?
One of the stark difference or maybe a coincidence between both PM8 and PM9 and other Prime Ministers before and after them was that both became Prime Minister through a series of political maneuvering amongst the elected lawmakers and not appointed pursuant to a general election.
Could this potentially be the reason why Mahathir did not called for their resignation? Why now, 4 months after the formation of a new government led by PM10 did he raised the issue asking for the Malays not to support Anwar’s government?
He is known for his tenacity and doggedness in pursuing his objectives. And once he started his 'journey', he is unlikely to stop.
Based on his track record against PM5 and PM6, his attack, likely to increase in intensity for many more months, is likely to move from calling the Malays not to support Anwar’s government to him openly calling for PM10 to resign. The frightening scenario which the country is facing is that he succeeded in every of his attempt calling for a sitting and duly elected Prime Minister to resign or be removed.
What if he succeeds in his current endeavour? Is his 'chosen successor' going to plunge the country into the ranks of those countries termed as 'banana republic'?
Based on his track record, it appears that every of his handpicked successor failed and performed worse off than the predecessor they succeeded, plunging the nation deeper into the debt morass. And based on the debt situation which the country is saddled with presently, it can’t withstand another beating if his 'chosen successor' failed and performed worse off than all those handpicked predecessors of his.
If he is successful in his current endeavor to ask the Malays to reject Anwar’s government, the chances of his 'chosen successor' failing in governing the country is almost certain.
Maybe for his current endeavor, he should reveal his plans on the person he plans to nominate to lead the government should he succeed in his endeavor and provide a timeline and sequence of the action plans how his chosen successor would be helping the Malays.
Previously, the rakyat has to live with his game of political chess and the spectacular failures his handpicked successors wracked on the country.
Is he going to put the Malays through another generation of failure again in his present game of political chess?
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