If Mahathir calls you racist and corrupt, don't expect to even get an apology - instead just be silent and accept what he said as the truth, even if you disagree.
But if you call Mahathir racist and corrupt, then be prepared to to pay him RM150 million.
This is what Malaysia has become today unfortunately — a place where power doesn’t just protect you from criticism, it entitles you to profit from it.
For context, 100 year old Mahathir has finally had his day in court , to say that he has had it with Anwar. After 27 years of being accused by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim of being corrupt, racist, and power-hungry, he is finally taking legal action — now that Anwar is Prime Minister.
Let’s be clear: Mahathir didn’t care when Anwar made these accusations against him before Anwar became the PM.
“From 1998 to November 2022, I did not care at all because Anwar had no power and no position as prime minister,” Mahathir told the High Court.
And that one line says everything.
Mahathir’s problem, it seems, is not that he’s being accused of wrongdoing, but that the accusation now comes from someone in power. The issue, it seems, is not about the truth or falsehood of Anwar's accusation — Mahathir it seems, doesn't really care all that much about what the truth is.
Rather, it is power and officiality that chiefly concerns him. For Mahathir, slander only hurts when it’s spoken by someone with authority, for then it will gain the weight of officiality.
It’s a deeply revealing statement — one that shows how political power in Malaysia has always been treated as a divine force rather than a democratic one. If the powerless say something, it’s noise. If the powerful say it, it’s blasphemy.
A Century-Old Reputation at Stake
In court, Mahathir described Anwar as a “pathological liar” who would “lie for power and position.” He said Anwar had been spreading “slander” for 27 years, and that his remarks at a PKR congress last year had finally crossed the line.
The reason? Mahathir says Anwar’s words have made people believe that he enriched his children, engaged in cronyism, and hid billions overseas.
“Up to this day,” Mahathir told the court, “not a single evidence was presented by Anwar to show I stole money or enriched my children.”
He added that he had given Anwar a chance to apologise, but Anwar refused and instead chose to fight it out in court. So, Mahathir says, suing is his only way to defend his dignity.
There’s a certain tragicomedy in that. This is not only a man who has never apologized for anything in his life, but a man who once boasted that he was unmoved by criticism. Well, it seems that Mahathir is only unmoved by criticism when he is the one with power and influence, and those who criticise him are lower in him in power and influence. Once he is criticized by those who have greater power and influence than him however, then it seems that he is not so invincible at anymore.
Power its seems, defines everything for Mahathir - from what is true and what is not, to whether he cares or whether he cares - it is power that tells what what is and whether he should concern himself with it or not.
No wonder he is having such a hard time without it.
Selective Outrage
Let’s be honest: Mahathir is no stranger to controversial statements. This is the same man who once called Malays lazy, labelled the Chinese and Indians disloyal, and described Jews as a hook-nosed race who make others die for them.
If I made such a remarks in public, repeatedly, over a span of decades and years, I wouldn't be too surprised when people call me racist. Whether I see myself as a realist or a racist is a different story, but at least I will understand why people might think that I am a racist.
And If my father was a modest schoolteacher - and I claim that I got by in life just by my monthly salary as a politicians — but my children end up sitting atop hundreds of millions and even billions in declared wealth, I also would think it is perfectly natural that people might wonder about how my children amassed such a vast amount of money, or whether I used my political office to benefit my children, but I suppose Mahathir is made different.
The rules and reason that apply to others, don't apply to him.
Anyway, I think it is a strange sort of democracy we live in where public leaders are free to insult entire communities, yet ordinary citizens (or even other politicians) will risk a lawsuit, just for questining their exaggerated sense of self importance.
The Mathematics of Power
RM150 million, by the way, is an extraordinary amount of money. It’s more than what most Malaysians could ever earn in several lifetimes. But that’s what Mahathir believes his “reputation” is worth, and Mahathir isn't even anybody today. He is just a retired 100 year old man.
Talk about an exaggerated sense of self worth.
Mahathir’s reasoning is also revealing. He said he’s only suing now because Anwar, as Prime Minister, can use the institutions of power — the police, the MACC, the Attorney-General’s Chambers — to damage his reputation.
But that logic raises another uncomfortable question: how many others, during Mahathir’s own decades in power, felt the same way about him?
For years, critics accused Mahathir of weaponising state institutions to crush dissent and silence opponents. If his argument today is that Anwar’s power makes his words dangerous, then perhaps he is finally experiencing a taste of the fear that so many felt under his own rule.
The Bigger Truth
This lawsuit is not about one man’s reputation. It’s about how power in Malaysia functions.
It shows us that truth here isn’t decided by evidence — it’s decided by status. What is said by the powerless is dismissed as slander; what is said by the powerful becomes gospel.
In a system built on hierarchy instead of honesty, defamation suits become tools not for justice but for intimidation. They remind everyone that speech is a privilege granted by those at the top — not a right protected for those below.
So when Mahathir sues Anwar for RM150 million, he’s not just defending his name — he’s reaffirming the very culture of political entitlement he helped create.
In the end, Mahathir’s lawsuit isn’t shocking. It’s fitting.
Because in Malaysia, you can call entire communities lazy, ungrateful, or disloyal, and no one will bat an eye. But if you call a powerful old man racist or corrupt, you’d better be ready to pay — perhaps even RM150 million — for daring to say what everyone else already thinks, simply because it punctures the powerful old man's exaggerated sense of self importance.
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