| April 19, 2015
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| Tun Mahathir and Dato Sri Najib Malaysia's PM (2015) |
Mahathir Mohamad, who needs no introduction, probably fancies himself as some sort of latter day Deng Xiaoping.
After Deng “stepped down”, he had “no official posts” i.e. he left the public eye. He was an “ordinary person”. Yet he ran China until the day he died. Deng, even during his time in “office”, was never head of state, head of government, or the general-secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. The only post that Deng was reported to have held was as the Chairman of the Central Advisory Commission of the Communist Party.
Yet, in or out of “office”, Deng was the de facto leader of China. Déjà vu!
The four most powerful persons in China “reported” to Deng. If they did anything important without consulting him, they suddenly had “problems”. Deng knew how to navigate the system and exert his influence. The four most powerful persons were the President, Prime Minister, the general-secretary and Chairman of the Military Commission. Deng was a unique form of leadership. He operated smoothly. Mahathir, in that sense, is a failure as a Deng Xiaoping. Bear with me!
Deng was all about sustainability. His four modernisations – agriculture, industry, national defence and science and technology – were marked by the thinking: “It doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it can catch mice.”
Even so, Mahathir has raised legitimate concerns on Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, and we should perhaps take at least some notice of what he’s saying. He’s implying, in a pot calling the kettle black attack, that Najib has launched his own brand of unsustainability. Even more important, we should remember who is responsible for the mess the country is in now: Mahathir.
It began with the differences between Singapore and Malaysia i.e. the differences between Lee Kuan Yew and Mahathir. The latter fears that Malaysia will become more like Singapore if Pakatan Rakyat seizes the reins of power in Putrajaya from the ruling Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN). If that really happens, that will be wonderful news and Singapore will be back in Malaysia in a jiffy and Sabah and Sarawak would not want part company with Malaysia. LKY himself had hinted at this – Singapore’s return — several times. Sabah and Sarawak are with Malaysia because of Singapore.
Singapore was all about meritocracy and sustainability, although the island is probably too small anyway as LKY feared, to be sustainable like India for example which has 8,000 years behind it.
Mahathir has been all about mediocrity, under the guise of Article 153 in the Federal Constitution and the New Economic Policy (NEP), and unsustainability.
Mahathir does not see unsustainability as an issue. He thinks that the unsustainable – i.e. his brand — will somehow become sustainable if you keep at it long enough. Leadership, he feels, should do the trick in turning around unsustainability into sustainability. This is where Najib, in Mahathir’s estimation, “falls apart”. Mahathir’s idea on unsustainability reads like the definition for insanity. The definition for insanity: keep on doing the same things which had brought failure and expect a different, and better, result. No one is convinced that there’s method in Mahathir’s madness. The man probably begs to differ.
Najib should be the least of Mahathir’s concerns although he’s making a mess of the country – i.e. having launched into his own brand of unsustainability — and will probably wreck it unless he’s not allowed to get away with it. In any case, things are likely to get a whole lot worse before they get any better, if at all. There’s a dangerous power vacuum in the country. It’s said that every organisation contains within itself the seeds of its own destruction.
Other countries, where dangerous power vacuums have emerged, are still suffering. Witness Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen and some of the former republics in the defunct USSR. Ukraine is a tragic example. Here, following the denial of free speech, the issue is the lack of dialogue between the government and the people. Hence, the resort to arms. War, after all, is the continuation of politics by other means.
The real issue in Malaysia is whether Mahathir can be the leopard that changed its spots. Time is not on his side. Mahathir cannot be entirely blamed. What Mahathir “achieved” during his 22 years as Prime Minister was something the Malays and Muslims probably wanted and went along with anyway, for want of a better term, because they saw it as a panacea.
As far as Mahathir is concerned, the real issue is Najib’s lack of leadership. Mahathir is only partly right here. The real issue related to Najib is actually the lack of effective followers beyond race. Leadership is of two kinds. Either it’s effective — in delivering the goods — or the followers must be effective.
Najib has “antagonized” everyone in government by surrounding himself with the same kind of imbeciles around Mahathir, foreign textbook experts and foreign PR and media advisers. The latter two groups don’t really know the country and the people. The experts, who also don’t know the country and the people, should be run out of town for probably having been educated beyond their intelligence. They simply can’t connect the dots. Knowledge, like money, is intrinsically worthless. What really matters is skills.
Najib’s exit does not mean that we will somehow be gifted with a leader. Badawi left and we ended up with Najib, an even worse idea. Mahathir himself has conceded that there’s no leader in sight. Does that mean that he has discounted Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin who has displayed no leadership skills in education for example and wants to be Malay first?
Does Mahathir see himself returning as the leader, albeit for a brief period — could be anything between six months to 18 months at the most — to “put things right”? If so, he has to say so now, and not continue to beat around the bush. Let the people decide.
Mahathir, throughout his years in power and even when he was a mere Deputy Prime Minister under Hussein Onn, was noted for the standard line: “Don’t worry about it. You just leave (or stay out) and everything will be okay. Just go. I will fix it.”
Again, if Mahathir returns, will he be the proverbial leopard that changed its spots? The proverbial leopard cannot change its spots.
What Mahathir can do as Prime Minister again will be for another day along with Najib’s brand of unsustainability. These issues are specific, of public interest, but probably not too urgent. It can wait another week or so. Meanwhile, let the debate begin!
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Source: Free Malaysia Today - Malaysia
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/highlight/2015/04/19/najib-the-least-of-mahathirs-concerns/
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