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By Mihar Dias October 2025
By now, Malaysians have grown used to the sight of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad exchanging blows—not in Parliament, but in the courtroom, where the air is thick with irony and old grudges.
This week, the spectacle took a surreal turn when the centenarian former Prime Minister, clearly exasperated, quipped that the case might take so long he could die before it’s settled.
Given how long this feud has been running—four decades and counting—one could forgive the man for wondering whether “justice delayed” is actually “justice denied… or strategically postponed.”
Anwar’s defence, through his lawyers, is that the questions being asked are “irrelevant.” But to outsiders, it seems the only thing more irrelevant than the questions is the case’s pace.
It’s been dragging on for years, and every postponement smells faintly of political perfume—expensive, familiar, and covering something unpleasant.
Tun M’s complaint that he’s only allowed to answer “agree” or “disagree” adds another layer of absurdity. Imagine telling Mahathir—who’s been lecturing the world since the 1980s—to keep his answers short.
That’s like asking ChatGPT to stop talking after “Hello.”
The man has built entire legacies on monologues; to muzzle him now feels almost cruel.
But perhaps Anwar’s team has cracked a genius strategy: if you can’t win quickly, win slowly. After all, time is the great equalizer. If the case takes another decade or two, one party might not be around to celebrate the verdict.
It’s a tactic older than democracy—wear your opponent down until he’s too tired (or too dead) to fight back.
To be fair, Anwar has a point in calling the lawsuit politically motivated.
Of course it is—this is Malaysia, where every other legal proceeding comes with a political side dish.
But if the PM’s goal is to prove his innocence swiftly and decisively, dragging a 100-year-old man through an endless procedural maze isn’t exactly the way to do it.
Unless, of course, the real plan is to run out the clock and declare moral victory by attrition.
Meanwhile, Tun M is still fighting on, cracking jokes about living till 200 just to see this case through. It’s hard not to admire the stamina.
For a man who once outlasted three generations of political rivals, this may be his most personal endurance test yet.
Perhaps in the end, this courtroom drama isn’t about truth or justice, but about who blinks—or breathes—the last.
If Anwar’s lawyers continue at this pace, they might just win by default, not in court but in the obituary section.
For now, Malaysians can sit back and enjoy the show—two men who once promised to save the nation now locked in a battle to outlive each other’s patience.
Somewhere in the corridors of power, the clock ticks softly, and Anwar smiles. After all, time is on his side.
Mihar Dias (mihardias@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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