TWO-TIME ex-premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has spoken up against his detractors who have been reprimanding him every time he expressed concern about current developments.
“I was told to rest and shut up because I lost the election and lost my deposit,” he lamented on his Facebook page which generated 1,400 comments, 8,800 likes and 248 shares at the time of writing.
“I’m a bit puzzled why people want me to be silent. They used to say that I was senile. Now they told to keep quiet because I lost my (election) deposit.”
To recap, a total of 369 parliamentary candidates, including Dr Mahathir lost their deposits in the 15th General Election (GE15). Contesting in Langkawi, the 98 year-old former Pejuang founder/chairman failed to defend the seat, securing only 4,566 out of 48,123 votes in a five-cornered contest.
His son Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir who is Pejuang president, also lost his deposit after obtaining less than one-eighth of the total number of votes in the Jerlun parliamentary seat.
In fact, all the dozen-odd candidates from Pejuang as well as four from Warisan, three Independents and Parti Rakyat Malaysia (one) lost their RM10,000 deposits.
Despite his probable sensing that Malaysians are still unforgiving of his role in the Sheraton Move conspiracy that culminated in the downfall of the 22-month-old Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, Dr Mahathir was adamant that “every truth needs to be stated even if only one person hears it”
“If no one is listening, the truth still needs to be told,” insisted the nonagenarian politician who holds both the record as Malaysia’s longest serving PM (22 years from July 1981 to October 2003) and the world’s oldest serving state leader at the age of 94 at the time of his resignation in March 2020 (second stint).
“Permission is not a majority or minority monopoly or that does not lose the deposit. If that’s the measure, I think the minority group should keep quiet and accept whatever the majority decision is, even if it’s wrong.”
Added Dr Mahathir: “For me, as long as there is life, I will continue to voice what is not right even if it is bitter to be heard by the group that did not lose the deposit.” – Feb 23, 2023
