In a twist of political irony, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad - once the architect of a coalition government built with DAP’s strength - now claims that Malays are “losing power” under Prime Minister Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim due to the very party he once embraced to regain power.
During his RM150 million defamation suit against Anwar, the 100-year-old former premier testified that Anwar is being “controlled” by DAP to maintain his government’s stability. Mahathir argued that the current administration is dominated by a non-Malay party and that Anwar has accepted DAP’s multiracial ideology - one which Mahathir interprets as a rejection of the concept of Tanah Melayu.
But this accusation carries deep irony. It was Mahathir himself who, in 2018, strategically joined forces with DAP and PKR under Pakatan Harapan to unseat Barisan Nasional. He knew that DAP held the largest number of seats, and that partnering with them was the only viable way to form a stable government. Politics, after all, is not about sentiment but survival - and Mahathir’s comeback depended on DAP’s parliamentary strength.
During his second tenure, DAP’s Lim Guan Eng served as Finance Minister and Tommy Thomas as Attorney General. Their appointments were viewed as reformist and professional, reducing Bersatu’s ability to act with impunity. Ironically, it was the internal pressure within Bersatu - not DAP’s dominance - that ultimately brought Mahathir’s downfall. Bersatu leaders, led by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, feared losing control and engineered the infamous Sheraton Move, toppling Mahathir and elevating Muhyiddin as prime minister.
Today, Anwar’s partnership with DAP mirrors Mahathir’s own strategy in 2018 - one based on pragmatism, not subservience. Even Mahathir admitted under cross-examination that Malays still dominate key positions in the civil service, military, and police, and that no constitutional amendments have weakened Malay rights.
Mahathir’s courtroom statements, therefore, reveal less about Malay political decline and more about his personal disillusionment with a political landscape that has moved beyond his control. The statesman who once declared that Malays must compete on merit now warns of their supposed loss of dominance - forgetting that it was his own politics of division and betrayal that fragmented Malay unity in the first place.
History, it seems, has a way of reminding its makers that irony is the price of political reinvention.
By: Kpost
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