Mahathirudan

Rafique took umbrage at the fact that I was a perennial pessimist when it came to Mahathir and that I should not have called a 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 a pessimist in pointing out wrongs rather than an optimist in remaining silent about 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.

The fact that the Chinese are doing well in business cannot be solely attributed to the role of leaders like Mahathir or others. Furthermore, the economic and commercial resilience of the Chinese does not mean that there is no discrimination towards them.

It would be an insult to the Chinese community to deny them their fruits of labour, despite the envy and jealousy of extreme Malay nationalists. The Forbes list of Malaysian millionaires and billionaires is an interesting example of how well non-Malays in general and Chinese in particular have done in business and commercial undertakings.

However, not all those who are listed are genuine businesspersons. Many are cronies of former prime ministers like Mahathir and others. Using the Forbes list hardly negates my argument of extreme cronyism under Mahathir’s administration.

Never the same after Mahathir

Rafique is right in pointing out that the DAP became close to Mahathir during Pakatan Harapan’s short-lived administration.

Whether the relationship was one of symbiosis or parasitic needs to be flushed out.

The 22 months of Mahathir’s administration under Harapan was a costly one not only for PKR, Amanah but also for DAP.

DAP has never been the same after the costly experiment with Mahathir.

It has cast a permanent scar on the future performance of the party.

This is the reason why I have argued that Harapan in general and DAP, in particular, must exorcise the “ghost” of Mahathir for the purpose of political rehabilitation.

Harapan leaders must openly admit that it was a mistake to have made 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 would it be possible for Mahathir to provide leadership to a political party when he is the source of the mess 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.

Let the legal process take its due course.

I might not agree with Rafique, but I will defend his right to blindly support Mahathir.