IN the 1990s, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad encouraged people to attend Edward de Bono’s seminars on lateral thinking.
Thirty years ago, he was still using lateral thinking to astound those who criticised his Malay Proclamation as a racist agenda.
De Bono was a Maltese physician and psychologist turned author, inventor and broadcaster. He is better known for the idea of lateral thinking which he wanted to introduce in schools. Dr Mahathir was a fan of de Bono.
Not everyone agrees with de Bono. For example, a distinguished professor of management at Western Kentucky University, M. Afzalur Rahim, has this to say about de Bono’s 1985 book Conflicts: A Better Way to Resolve Them.
“De Bono’s approach to total elimination of conflict is no different from the approaches of the classicists,” he said. “This approach to dealing with conflict is completely out of tune with modern thinking and, therefore, unsatisfactory.”
Netizens and especially the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) who interrogated the former prime minister should not be taken aback by his opinion piece which we carried as an opinion piece.
While we exercise freedom of voice by publishing his seemingly impressive, we urge readers to exercise critical thinking and ask the following questions:
To begin with, the answer to the last and easiest question is in the affirmative. Dr Mahathir’s ranting which intentionally brought the Chinese into the picture as being ‘corrupt’ surely does not augur well with every Chinese.
Most Chinese businessmen who pay a bribe to get a job done are not necessarily happy with the corrupt culture in this country. Rumours have it that whenever Dr Mahathir took a helicopter flight to Genting Highlands, the late Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong would find excuses to stay away.
It would have been different if Dr Mahathir had narrowed down to just a small group of corrupt Chinese than to use a blanket term, finger-pointing to the entire community.
Neither the community nor the Malay rulers in this country would be happy for the trigger-happy Dr Mahathir to play the race card while his nemesis-turned-ally Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang harped on the race and religious cards.
Their intentions are clearly to create another coup d’état similar to that of what Dr Mahathir is well-known of in 1969 despite our knowledge now that the May 13 riot was a political coup rather than a nationwide race riot.
The Malay Proclamation being whipped up by Dr Mahathir is seen now as an attempt to de-stablise the unity government that is set up by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (YDPA) and the Conference of Malay Rulers.
Whether the Malay rulers are happy with Dr Mahathir’s ranting in the public, against their ancestors, we uphold with high regards His Royal Highness Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar’s comments when Dr Mahathir commented about Chinese investments in the state of Johor.
On the other hand, the present Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who is more multi-racial in outlook and seeking to build bridges with the international community for common good, is even willing to work together with UMNO.
Despite being a party with the most elected representatives in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, DAP was even willing to give way to Anwar’s leadership. The party only has four ministers in the cabinet.
How racist can DAP be in the eyes of the very person who destroyed the country’s social fabrics for his own political agenda and the enrichment of his own family?
We should no longer be conned with the self-seeking politicians and be used for another May 13 or even Memali incident. It is time for fellow Malaysians to wise up and focus on rebuilding our country’s economy for all to share.
On a last note, Dr Mahathir should be grateful that being an Indian Muslim technically himself, he was still accepted as a PM in this country, not once but twice. He dumped his own party UMNO and he duped Pakatan Harapan for 22 months.
To deny his roots is to play down on his own race whose roti canai, tosei and teh tarik have become the favourite morning breakfast for most Malaysians.
We wish him well but at the end of the day, there is no mistake about it – you will reap what you have sown. – June 12, 2023.
