In the Keluar Sekejap podcast, Mahathir and Khairy Jamaluddin will have a brief exchange, that like lightning in a dark sky, will make everything clear in an instant.
In the podcast, Khairy will suddenly ask Mahathir: “Why do you not like me?”
To this, Mahathir, although taken aback, will answer: “Because you competed against my son in 2008.”
This brief exchange gives us a glimpse of what is wrong in Malaysia today.
For good or bad, Mahathir’s influence in Malaysia can be underestimated. As a rule, the person at the top is always taken as a role model.
Mahathir was the man on top in our country for 22 years. Considering that, consciously and subconsciously, more than one generation, especially those of us who are today in our forties, fifties and sixties today, have grown up modelling ourselves according to the template that Mahathir had set.
What Mahathir believes to be right or wrong is likely something that Malaysians, especially those of us in our 40s, 50s and 60s, think is right or wrong too. In whichever way that he sees himself and the world, that is likely how we see ourselves and the world too. In the same way that Mahathir has confused himself by thinking that right is wrong or wrong is right or by deluding himself into thinking that he is something that he is not or that the world is something that it is not, in that same way Malaysians are likely confused as well.
Those of us in our forties, fifties or sixties are likely the generation that is leading the country today. The fact that our country is universally acknowledged to be in a state of disorder today is a sign that there are many things about Mahathir’s value system, which he has imparted to the generation that he influenced, that is indeed problematic and defective.
It is the fact that they are defective and problematic, but widely practised with strength, on account of the generation he influenced being the most influential generation in the country today, that is probably what is causing our country to continuously veer dangerously into a state of irredeemable mess.
The brief example above, where Mahathir expresses displeasure towards Khairy for competing against his son, is an indication of just how defective Mahathir’s value system is, as well as how delusional his view of himself and the world is.
In Mahathir’s view, it is likely that he believes that there are just some people who are superior by way of identity. Some people, in his worldview, are just born great and are destined for greatness. He probably considers himself as such a superior person and seeing himself as such a superior person, he likely sees his son as superior too, for having inherited his blood.
Being so superior, he probably cannot accept anyone who challenges him or his bloodlines, even in a fair contest, for their action to him, is tantamount to challenging his destiny.
To manifest his beliefs in his destiny, Mahathir probably cultivates toxic gratitude and loyalty from those around him, in the hopes that they will pay back his largess by supporting his destiny and the destiny of his bloodlines.
It is for this reason that he probably believes that those who contest against him or his bloodlines are traitors and ingrates, who bit his hands after he fed them. Seeing so, he probably feels justified in kicking those who bit his hands after he fed them, because he believes that “the dog that bites the hands that feed it, will lick the boots that kick it.”
Mahathir’s worldview is obviously defective because even he failed to live up to it.
If it is so wrong to contest against those who did you a favour in the past, then he should rightfully see himself at fault too for his actions of challenging everybody from Tunku to Tun Hussein Onn to Tengku Razaleigh.
If he sees people who bite his hand after he fed them as traitors and ingrates, how does he see himself for what he did to Tunku Tun Hussein Onn or Tengku Razeleigh?
If he thinks he is justified for kicking the ingrates and traitors that bit his hands, why does he still begrudge Tunku for expelling him out of Umno once upon a time ago, when what Tunku did to him is but one-sixteenth of what he did to Anwar, Pak Lah and Najib.
In the podcast, Mahathir will claim that the reason he took umbrage against Khairy is because he believes Khairy’s mother-in-law campaigned for him against Mahathir’s son in the 2008 Umno elections.
It is ironic how Mahathir sees fault in Khairy’s mother-in-law campaigning for her son-in-law but does not see his fault, for campaigning for his son Mukhriz from the day that Mukhriz has stepped into politics.
This entire worldview that Mahathir has inculcated in us, where we believe that if we do something, it is justified, but when others do it, it is a crime, because we are special and others are not, therefore we cannot be held to the same standard that we hold others accountable for, is part of the legacy that we have inherited from Mahathir, that has hijacked our value system, reversing our fortune and slowly killing us today.
It is because we are weighed down by his legacy, that we keep sinking into decline and ruin, no matter how hard we try to keep ourselves afloat and find our way to safety.
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