There is an open letter making the rounds on social media that I came across recently. It is written by a woman named Betty Teh, addressed to Mahathir Mohamad, inviting him to be interviewed — to “come clean”, perhaps — on the basis that time is running out.
When I read it, I realised that the way the letter viewed Mahathir was so fundamentally different from how I see him, that it made me pause to wonder why.
After some reflection, it occurred to me that the divergence may stem — at the risk of sounding sexist — because the writer of the letter is a woman, while I am a man.
You see, I think it is only a woman that might look at someone like Mahathir and feel that he needs to clear his conscience, redeem himself, or seek vindication before it is too late. But as a man, I do not think that this is how Mahathir himself sees himself at all.
As a man, in the way that I see it, Mahathir is just a winner.
Winners are people like Genghis Khan, Trump, Alexander, Napoleon, Caesar — and yes, even Anwar Ibrahim and Mahathir. They are people who have decided what they want from life with strength, and pursue it with single-minded determination, come hell or high water.
In their quest, it may be the case that many people may suffer.
Genghis Khan is said to have caused the deaths of up to ten percent of the world’s population. Alexander was no slouch either when it came to body counts. Yet I am quite certain that even as they lay dying, neither of them felt particularly sorry about what they had done.
If they felt regret at all, it was probably not about the harm and destruction that they had done — but that they did not fully achieve their ambition.
I am not saying this because I think these figures were good or evil. I am saying it because good and evil are not the primary frame through which winners judge themselves.
When you are a winner, you judge yourself by whether you have won or lost, not whether you were morally good or bad.
Mahathir came from humble origins. He was born amongst a colonised people. Anyone who comes from such a background understands, intimately, the pain and humiliation of low status — of being talked down to, ruled over, dismissed.
In the way I see it, at some point, Mahathir likely decided that he would not accept that status. He would not accept it for himself, nor would he accept it for his people. Rejecting it, he decided to rise — and in rising, he resolved he would drag his people up with him.
To achieve his resolution, I am sure he did many things.
If you want yourself and your people to go up, someone else and some other people has to be brought down. You also can't play the game according to the rules set by those who have kept you and your people down. That being the case, if Mahathir brought ruin and caused harm to others, and if he bent or broke some rules to fulfill his aim, I am quite sure that he is fully capable of justifying all of it as necessary.
Does that make him a bad person?
Well, if you ask me, I feel that to frame the question this way itself already a misunderstanding of who a winner is .
You see, when a winner enters a field of contest, he knows that people will have to bring others down so that he and his team might rise. If he comes from a position of disadvantage, he might even believe that the rules are set against him and his team, and thus he might even be predisposed to bend if not break it, to move himself and his side from a position of disadvantage to a position of advantage. But just because he does all these things, it doesn't mean that he will see himself as evil or corrupt. In all likelihood, he might just simply see it as the nature of the game.
In her open letter, Betty writes as if she sees herself as a good and compassionate person. She even signs off by describing herself as “a woman who is always too forgiving.” I suppose she is trying to say that no matter how horrible Mahathir might be, it is not beyond her capacity to forgive him and look upon him with understanding and compassionate eyes. I suppose she might even believe that the understanding and perhaps even absolution, that someone as good and forgiving as her can provide him, would be something that Mahathir might cherish in the sunset of his days.
Personally, I don't think this is a case at all.
In the way I see it, a winner does not care about the opinion of those he does not admire or respect. And for someone like Mahathir, other than his wife, I doubt if there is anyone in this country — perhaps even in the world — whom he admires or respects enough to care about their judgement of him.
Because of that, even if the entire world were to judge Mahathir negatively, I am quite sure that he is just going to accept it as a the nature of the game, rather than affect the way he sees himself.
This is why I think none of us should hold our breath waiting for Mahathir to confess his sins or come clean or ask for anyone's forgiveness, simply because he is at the twilight of his days.
I am no fan of Mahathir, but if I were him, I would feel I have nothing to come clean or apologize about either, for as long as I believe that till the end, I was trying to win and bring victory to my people.
Other people, like Betty, or even me, might judge him negatively for some of the things he did in his quest to win for himself and his people, but I am quite certain that Mahathir would not care about my opinion of him, anymore than a lion cares about the opinions of a lamb.
To him, the only thing that matters is whether his people won. If they did, whatever he has done to make it possible, is likely something that he has already made his peace with it. If they haven't, the he will attempt to make peace with it, by fighting for them until his last breath.
Mahathir's entire life is his testimony. If you have examined it in full and still do not understand who he is , I doubt you will understand him even if he explains it to you one more time.
TheRealNehruism (nehru.sathiamoorthy@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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