Hantu Laut
Former Prime Minister Mahathir is known for his abrasive and combative ways.He is not one who is hamstrung with shooting from the hip. A man who never minces his word and called a spade a spade no matter how much it hurts the other person at the receiving end.
The past few weeks have seen him admonishing and belittling the other two contenders for the deputy president of UMNO, Ali Rustam and Muhammad Taib. He said he would have kicked them out in the early stage if it was him at the helm of the party and also commented on their poor command of English.
His strongest criticism is reserved for those whom he disliked intensely and that would be Pak Lah whom he blamed for all that had gone wrong in UMNO, that would see Pak Lah exiting as prime minister by end of this month.
Mahathir, although no more a member of the party is still highly respected by some quarters in UMNO. This is the man you either love or hate.Opposition politicians hate him intensely and wouldn't give him any credit for his achievements. They only remember his bad sides and people like Karpal Singh, Lim Kit Siang and Anwar Ibrahim who had gone to prison during his time see him as the devil incarnate, cruel and unforgiving.
On 27 October 1987 he ordered the police to arrest 106 opposition leaders and social activists for causing racial tension.It was the second biggest ISA swoop since the May 13 riots. The racial tension was brought about by massive protest by Chinese leaders including those from MCA and Gerakan who uttered racially provocative speeches when they found out that the government had posted about 100 school assistants and principals to Chinese vernacular schools who were not Mandarin educated.
Some in UMNO is dreaming of the good old days when the party was all powerful, dissent unheard of and the oppositions in disarray, wish how they would like to bring him back if they could. After the openess allowed under Pah Lah's administration his autocratic style wouldn't work anymore. People are more aware of their democratic rights and wouldn't be easily intimidated by repressive methods.The ballot box is now the most powerful weapon.
The time machine could not take them back to that era and if change doesn't come soon the party losing its grip on power in the next general election is as sure as the sun rises.There is serious crisis of confidence and erosion of credibility in the present leadership.
He is no niggard with words and bluntness when it comes to slamming his opponents on issues he dislikes or doesn't agree with.He has slammed not only local politicians but also world leaders.Former US President George Bust and former Britain Prime Minister Tony Blair had been the bitter pills for him to swallow on the Iraq War and Palestinian conflicts and called both of them war criminals and demanded that they be tried for crimes against humanity.
I couldn't agree more with him on this issue.If the World Court can issue warrant of arrest for Bashir of Sudan why can't they do the same for these two men who had killed just as many if not more innocent civilians.Does the method of how you kill makes a difference? Murder is the taking of human life intentionally, whether you drop a bomb from the air, use a gun or a machete it is still murder.
As much as he is misunderstood he has also been most profound in some of his unorthodox ways of doing things which the West vehemently criticised before. Now, they have shamelessly copied him. He should have copyrighted his methods.
The mean old man still knows best.
9 comments:
The signs are returning that under Najib (and Rosmah?) the strong hands will be returning soon. Will all who criticise Najib be thrown behind bars under ISA?
Firaun attacks Bush and Blair perhaps with some justification.
But he kept silent about Mugabe the black Hitler, Putin, Suharto, Gadaffi, Kim Il Jong, Burmese Generals, Taliban, Hamaz, Hezbollah, Arab and Pakistan terrorists, often offering pathetic excuses.
The West turns off when Firaun starts talking because he is too biased. When one is in denial about one’s own ancestry all one’s life, then you are bound to see this kind of attitude perpetuated by perennially carrying a huge chip on the shoulder.
And now he warns Rosemajib about a corrupt-free Cabinet. How many would have passed the acid test in Firauns’ ‘Camelot?’ None, I would hazard my ten cents worth!
Great statesmen must know when to quit. Firaun’s bull-in-a-chinashop forays since 2004 are clear signs that his sell by date expired some time ago!! Only the desperate cling on and lionise him.
http://donplaypuks.blogspot.com
How would one feel that the PM of the day is only the PM of the Malay? Mahathir would swear he was once the PM for all but today he only champions the Malay politics to the extent he left UMNO to show his cause.
If he is the PM today would you think he would crack the case of Altantuya and bring the culprit to the book?
He makes me sick.
The Mean Old Man is the number one hypocrite of presence time, if he would have the power of the US President or Britain Prime Minister, he will cause Third World War. The late Tunku Abdul Rahman was right about him and hated him until he died.
He will only stop talking when he died, in the meantime ignore him.
HL,
Can't agree more with you on these points... at least he's quite consistent on MOST matters, like Palestine-Zionist issues, the devil-incarnates Bush & Blair, the triple-standard western economics policies, NOT flip-flopping like pak lah... nobody's perfect ma... not even your and my old men and grand-ol' men, I'm sure? Noisy old kit siang and anuar ibrahim, or even PAS for that matter... they got infected with flip-flop virus too lately? So who are we to sound so self-righteous ma?
Som Mahathir bashing opinions, good, good - nothing more to add as I share the comments made by donplaypuks and fearless.
HL,
If UMNO were to implode, the mean old are to be blamed. Vote buying and corruptions were already rampage when he was the head. The malays were already deserting UMNO during the tenth General Election and the Chinese save BN for the day. Instead of thanking the Chinese, he turn back and bite them.
During the eleventh General Election both the Malays and Chinese supported strongly BN because of Pah Lah's promise of reforms which sway away form the mean old man policies.
The mean old man become angry with Pah Lah because the latter landslide victory and do away with the former policies. He then create division by openly supporting Najib to topple Pah Lah.
Pah Lah really got his balls squeeze, the challenges was so great, on one hand his promise of reforms to the people and on the other the enormous and difficult task to deal with hardcore mean old man supporters still numerous and running wild in UMNO. After all twenty two years at the helm, the bad bacteria flourish are immune to any rectification. Mean old man can said what he like but the facts remains that his current enemies Ali Rustam, Muhammad Taib, Anwar etc were created under his stewardship.
During the twelfth General Election, PR were able to capitalize on UMNO weaknesses and mirror Obama rhetoric of change and indeed did very well in the last election. It was a year back, priority then and now is difference, what is important today is to put foods on the table, even in US is the same. The rhetoric of change have been trashed.
People are now more interest in how Najib manage the country economy and navigate us out of difficult time, look like it going to take a long, long time for the global economy to recover. That is my fear.
“Wisdom doesn't automatically come with old age. Nothing does - except wrinkles. It's true, some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place.”
Just like
"Old man without wisdom"
Many 'interesting' comments...
Easy to blame the 'mean old man'. Blame EVERYTHING on him. Cheap to do so when he's no longer in power.
When he was in power then, telor semua kecut....
...very principled and very 'tastefully' done....
Everybody has faults including him but when one wants to analyse properly and fairly, make a balance sheet, ok.....
Best regards,
Jimbo
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