As the former premier, Tun Dr. Mahathir ends his ninth decade on earth, with almost one third of his life being this country’s prime minister, this writer looks back both fondly and regretfully at the last few years of his public life, the period where usually legacies are forged or thrown down the garbage chute.
Today, one of the most well-known public figures in Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, celebrates his 99th birthday. 99 years on earth, even surpassing some of the long-life-spanned tortoises that haven’t gotten trapped in some fishing net. The similarities are that the tortoises were harmless creatures with a hard shell protecting their bodies, while Mahathir is about as harmless as an arsenic-laced vanilla ice cream with a hard ego protecting his actions.
A New Hope
Years before, during his first round of premiership, before he turned to the dark side and became the Sith Lord of the Opposition, Dr. Mahathir was generally well liked by all Malaysians, admired grudgingly by his then foes, for his vision, his wit, and his general love for the progress of the country. My late brother was fond of him, in fact, having met the former PM several times, but that was Dr. M Part One, A New Hope.
Then, all hell broke loose... Well, the damn first burst during his premiership when his then deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, was put behind the slammer for, of all things, what the latter was doing to his biological instrument.
Mahathir is known as the father of development (Bapa Pembangunan Malaysia); oh, wait no, that is Tun Abdul Razak, our second premier. I checked, and it says that
Dr. M is Bapa Wawasan, which is referring to Vision 2020. The bespectacled premier launched this vision in 1991, whereby there was all sorts of idealistic stuff that he hoped Malaysia would achieve. It was a vision after all. Something former drug addicts would gladfully share in rehab centres. I know some.
But you have to give him credit, though. When he became the prime minister through a different political party in 2020, he announced that the Vision 2020 had failed, blaming his successors Pak Lah and Najib. Because, why the hell not?
Resignation Strikes Back
Since he resigned for the second time—yes, very few people resign from the same position in the same office twice—he has been in a couple of other parties, swinging like an octogenarian Tarzan from one political tree to another.
While the swinging 80 then 90 something was doing the, err, swinging, he continued with his bitching, whining, and moaning, most of which entered whichever leader at the helm of the country’s administration’s left ear and squeezed out of the right one.
Which now brings us to the question of legacy. One day or another, his time to leave the earthly abode will come, and how will folks remember him? Yes….
The legacy. You see, his first successor, Abdullah Badawi, may not have been the greatest prime minister, but after his passing, he is remembered fondly as a, well, nice guy. Genial, a gentleman who had never ruffled anyone’s feathers, kept his head down and just did his job. We remember him fondly as that Songkok-wearing, pleasant man who was genuine and a great diplomat during his foreign minister days.
When Dr. M is no longer around, we will just remember him as a cynical, bitter person who couldn’t let go of his power and had to resign twice—after humiliations—and yet didn’t want to leave the stage like an ageing thespian who spends more time with make-up than actually performing.
Return Of The Sith
It is not that he has not done anything. Yes, bringing Malaysia out of the agricultural era is one, but what I love the most about him is his guts whenever he treats the United States like a b***tch. Even the French was not spared. There is a Samson vs. Goliath feel to the whole stance of his, always smacking the American image around like a dwarf in a wrestling ring. It’s satisfying.
I view him more as an anti-hero than either side of the character axis. He is sort of the Dirty Harry of Malaysian politics, where the movie cop was once seen as heroic, but in retrospect, Harry is dismissed as a fascist cop by critics, who criticised and noted that Harry’s unsound methods would have long sent him into an asylum.
Not that I suggest they do the same to Tun Dr. Mahathir. Being still active in Malaysian politics, he is in a bloody asylum, especially as he lived through the craziness that ensued after Datuk Seri Najib was ousted by the now regretting voters who are still waiting for either an ideal prime minister or the drop in fuel prices, both of which were empty promises.
In any case, Dr. Mahathir’s contributions would not be forgotten, just as we won’t forget some of the darker deeds. Happy birthday (as we Indians pronounce his name), Dr. Magatheer. May the force be with you.
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