By P Ramasamy
IT will take two desperados, Tan Sri Mahiaddin Yassin and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, to ruin the country further.
The Perikatan Nasional Government must be really desperate that it wants Mahathir to be on its side.
After indulging in the politics of acrimony for while, they have come together not for the betterment of the country but to ensure its eventual downfall.
The Government is eager or desperate to appoint the two-term prime minister Mahathir to join the National Recovery Plan committee (NRPC).
Mahathir who just celebrated his 96th birthday said that he had received the invitation from the chairman of the committee, Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz, but yet to take up the offer.
Mahathir might have celebrated his birthday, but I wonder whether he can be proud of his achievements when he was the prime minister for two disastrous terms.
In my view, the NRPC is a pathetic response to the pandemic. You do not need a recovery committee, what is needed is the procurement and disbursement of more vaccines.
Whatever it is, the last thing NRPC needs is Mahathir. However, things have changed a bit lately.
The beleaguered Mahiaddin is is badly in need of political support even from a mosquito party like Parti Pejuang Tanah Air.
What name for party that has no visible history of struggle! Are we to be surprised that Pejuang, after being denied registration for so long, was suddenly given the green light for no reason?
As there is saying in Tamil, there must be reason why the rat is running naked.
Registration of Pejuang was done before Mahathir was considered to be appointed to recovery plan committee.
Mahathir, who considered the Perikatan Government consisting of a bunch of thieves, might be taking a conciliatory approach now given the fact that his party has been registered.
The next thing you know that the mercurial Mahathir might be endorsing the badly bruised Perikatan as the Government for the Malays and by the Malays.
A Malay only Government is not too far from Mahathir’s ambitions.
The registration of Pejuang was the birthday present given to Mahathir not because Mahiaddin cares about the former but calculated move to get cozy with the old maverick to gain support at the Parliament.
M’sia heading nowhere
However, both the Government and State with its manifold institutions are on the verge of failing.
The argument that Malaysia is failing as a nation may not be wrong. The spontaneous display of white flags is an indication that something is seriously wrong with this country.
A country that is being built on the twin toxic pillars of racial and religious bigotry where merit, justice and fairness have been virtually drowned in the quagmire of extremism.
The Perikatan Government might not consider the one-time dictator Mahathir as a saviour but they need him now to shore up some political support.
As usual, Mahathir thinks that he has definitive role in the management of the country, never mind the disaster he brought during his two terms in office.
The worst part is that there is small a non-cohesive group that thinks that Mahathir might have the magical answer to the present impasse.
I thought that Mahathir will bid sayonara to politics after his 96th birthday but I was wrong.
He is ready to throw in the spanners of hate and extremism in Malaysian politics again.
And we may as well say goodbye to Malaysia that we once knew. – July 12, 2021.
Prof P Ramasamy is the Penang deputy chief minister and Perai state assemblyman.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
