TRUTH hurts Pejuang party members more than others.
It is understandable why Pejuang’s federal territory deputy division leader Rafique Rashid Ali sprang to the defence of Pejuang’s leader and the twice-former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Rafique took umbrage to the fact that I was a perennial pessimist when it came to Mahathir and that I should not have called Pejuang a mosquito party.
It does not take a pessimist or an optimist to comment about the contributions or non-contributions of Mahathir.
It is better to be pessimist in pointing out wrongs rather than an optimist in remaining silent to wrongs.
The fact that the Chinese are doing well in business must be attributed to their hard work and resilience in the face of overt and covert discrimination that was introduced in the guise of the New Economic Policy (NEP).
The fact that Chinese are doing well in business cannot be solely attributed to the role of leaders like Mahathir or others. If anything, the economic and commercial resilience of the Chinese means that there is discrimination towards them.
It would be an insult to the Chinese community to deny them the fruits of their labour despite the envy and jealous of extreme Malay nationalists.
The Forbes list of Malaysian millionaires and billionaires is an interesting example of how well non-Malays in general and the Chinese in particular have done in business and commercial undertakings.
However, not all those who are listed are genuine businessmen – many are cronies of former prime ministers like Mahathir and others.
Using the Forbes list hardly negates my argument of extreme cronyism that existed under the Mahathir administration.
Rafique is right in pointing out that DAP became close to Mahathir during Pakatan Harapan’s (Pakatan) short-lived administration but whether the relationship was one of symbiosis or parasitic needs to be fleshed out.
Mahathir’s 22 months as prime minister under Pakatan was a costly one not only for PKR and Amanah but for DAP as well and suffice to say, DAP has never been the same after its experience with Mahathir.
In fact, it would not be a stretch to say that it has caused a permanent scar on the future performance of the party.
This is the reason why I have argued that Pakatan in general and DAP in particular must exorcise the “ghost” of Mahathir for the purpose of political rehabilitation.
Pakatan leaders must openly admit that it was mistake to make Mahathir the prime minister the second time around.
Pejuang might recognise the multi-racial character of the country by its allegiance to the Constitution – I am not disputing this at all.
But what I am saying is how can Mahathir provide leadership to a political party when he is the source of the mess that the country is in today?
Of all the prime ministers, he was singularly responsible for racialising the country to the extent that healing the deep racial and religious divisions have become extremely difficult.
There is no need on the part of Rafique to make references to other prime ministers, especially the one involved in the mammoth financial scandal.
For this particular former prime minister, let us allow the legal process to take its due course.
I might not agree with Rafique, but I will defend his right to blindly support Mahathir.
However, I must reiterate: Mahathir might be the leader of Pejuang but I don’t see a future for the party nor its loyal adherents. – March 28, 2022
Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy is the state assemblyperson for Perai. He is also deputy chief minister II of Penang.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
