Judge Dr M by his actions, not words
Right now, many quarters are accusing Dr Mahathir Mohamad of being a racist. Presumably these accusations were prompted by his open support of Perkasa, his recent comments about the race relations in Malaysia and his vocal championing of Malays.
How do you define the term 'racist' and does Mahathir fit that definition? According to the Princeton University WordNet lexical database, a racist can be defined as 'a person who holds the prejudice that members of one's race are intrinsically superior to members of other races and/or who has discriminatory or abusive behaviour towards members of another race'. It also implicitly follows that such a person would never do anything against the interests of his own race.
Now, the best way to assess a person's character or traits is to look at his actions and not just his words. Words are cheap, so goes the adage. It's actions that count. Going by that, the best way to decide if Mahathir is a Malay racist or otherwise is to put under scrutiny his various actions while he was the longest serving and most powerful prime minister this country has ever had, a period of 22 years during which he was numero uno and was indisputably the one calling the shots. The question to ask ourselves is did his actions then fit the aforementioned definition of a racist? Let's look at some episodes which stood out during his administration.
First, the Memali tragedy of 1985 in which 15 innocent Malay villagers died during a police operation to arrest a villager under the ISA. Mahathir was not the minister in direct control of the police then but as prime minister he did absolutely nothing to bring to book those responsible for the botched police operation.
And botched operation it was, in contrast to Operation Lallang two years later during which police efficiency was such that in rounding up 117 individuals under the ISA, including leaders of opposition parties, not a single incident of bloodshed took place. Now if Mahathir was a Malay supremacist, he would have hit the roof to learn that 15 innocent Malays had died at the hand of the police and would have done everything possible to punish those responsible. That he did nothing is a stark contradiction to any accusation that he is a Malay racist.
Second, the de-registration of the old Umno in February 1988. Now, irrespective of whether you are a pro- or anti-Umno person, that the old Umno was a Malay institution is a fact indisputable. As home minister during the whole affair, Mahathir had the powers conferred on him by the Societies Act of 1966 to exempt Umno from its provisions, the breaching of some of which led the High Court to declare the party illegal. Had he exercised those powers, the old Umno would have avoided de-registration.
The undeniable fact is that he did not. Now what kind of Malay ultra or supremacist or racist would see his own party, a Malay institution of forty-two years, dead rather than raise a finger to rescue it from that fate? This is another strong evidence in defence of Mahathir against any accusation that he is a racist. In addition, in the intervening period after the court's declaration and before the new Umno formed by Mahathir was legally registered as a political party, the interim leader of the Barisan Nasional was the then president of the MCA, Dr Ling Liong Sik. If Mahathir was a Malay racist, he would never have allowed such a situation to arise.
Third, after Mahathir had consolidated his grip on power using the vehicle of Umno Baru, the Malaysian economy recovered and went on to hit the boom years of the early and mid '90s. During this period, how did the ordinary Malay masses that Mahathir supposedly championed
profit from the strong economy? By most accounts, it passed them by. It was also during this period that the phenomena of corruption, cronyism and nepotism became ever more discernible.
\Whilst there was a coterie of Malay businessmen who benefitted from the Daim Zainuddin
connection with Mahathir, those businessmen who were under the direct patronage of the latter were all non-Malays. Names such as Francis Yeoh, Ananda Krishnan, Vincent Tan and Lee Kim Yew all easily come to mind. If Mahathir was a Malay racist, he would never have allowed
himself to be surrounded or so closely associated with such non-Malay individuals.
Fourth, when the state of Trengganu came to be under opposition rule following the 1999 general elections, Mahathir had no compunction whatsoever in discontinuing the petroleum royalty that Petronas was supposed to pay to the state government. It was a blatant act of abuse and discrimination against the state's population which was more than 95% Malay, one which arguably was in breach of the agreement Petronas had signed with the state.
No racist would blatantly disadvantage his own race, going by the definition of a racist given above. That Mahathir so unhesitatingly discriminated against a whole population of people who are his own race speaks volume of the fact that he is not a racist.
Fifth, in the 1999 general elections, a large part of the Malay electorate voted against Umno Baru in protest against Mahathir's conduct in his persecution of Anwar Ibrahim. With Malay votes almost evenly split between government and opposition, it was only the non-Malay votes which rescued many Umno candidates from losing. In the one single act that more than any other weakened Malay domination of the country's political landscape, after the 1999 general elections, Mahathir proceeded to delineate parliamentary constituencies resulting in more racially-mixed constituencies where non-Malay voters hold the balance of power.
Most tellingly, states with overwhelmingly Malay voters did not get any new parliamentary constituency in the delineation exercise. If there is any definitive act to prove that Mahathir is not a racist, this is the one, for what kind of racist would weaken his own race's hold on political power?
Hopefully, the preceding exposition would silence once and for all those, especially among the non-Malays who are so unfairly accusing Mahathir of racism. A person whose many actions, when he was the most powerful person in the country, were to the detriment and victimisation of his own race cannot logically be described as a racist.
Those many, mainly non-Malay, voices which are presently pinning the label of Malay racist on Mahathir doth protest too much. They should cease and desist. Who could forget that a bit more than a decade ago, they were the ones so vociferously and fiercely supporting him. They must have been so stupid to be so easily fooled for the man then surely was the same as the man now – look at his deeds, dudes, always his deeds. Never just the words, especially not those of a politician.
Now, the best way to assess a person's character or traits is to look at his actions and not just his words. Words are cheap, so goes the adage. It's actions that count. Going by that, the best way to decide if Mahathir is a Malay racist or otherwise is to put under scrutiny his various actions while he was the longest serving and most powerful prime minister this country has ever had, a period of 22 years during which he was numero uno and was indisputably the one calling the shots. The question to ask ourselves is did his actions then fit the aforementioned definition of a racist? Let's look at some episodes which stood out during his administration.
First, the Memali tragedy of 1985 in which 15 innocent Malay villagers died during a police operation to arrest a villager under the ISA. Mahathir was not the minister in direct control of the police then but as prime minister he did absolutely nothing to bring to book those responsible for the botched police operation.
And botched operation it was, in contrast to Operation Lallang two years later during which police efficiency was such that in rounding up 117 individuals under the ISA, including leaders of opposition parties, not a single incident of bloodshed took place. Now if Mahathir was a Malay supremacist, he would have hit the roof to learn that 15 innocent Malays had died at the hand of the police and would have done everything possible to punish those responsible. That he did nothing is a stark contradiction to any accusation that he is a Malay racist.
Second, the de-registration of the old Umno in February 1988. Now, irrespective of whether you are a pro- or anti-Umno person, that the old Umno was a Malay institution is a fact indisputable. As home minister during the whole affair, Mahathir had the powers conferred on him by the Societies Act of 1966 to exempt Umno from its provisions, the breaching of some of which led the High Court to declare the party illegal. Had he exercised those powers, the old Umno would have avoided de-registration.
The undeniable fact is that he did not. Now what kind of Malay ultra or supremacist or racist would see his own party, a Malay institution of forty-two years, dead rather than raise a finger to rescue it from that fate? This is another strong evidence in defence of Mahathir against any accusation that he is a racist. In addition, in the intervening period after the court's declaration and before the new Umno formed by Mahathir was legally registered as a political party, the interim leader of the Barisan Nasional was the then president of the MCA, Dr Ling Liong Sik. If Mahathir was a Malay racist, he would never have allowed such a situation to arise.
Third, after Mahathir had consolidated his grip on power using the vehicle of Umno Baru, the Malaysian economy recovered and went on to hit the boom years of the early and mid '90s. During this period, how did the ordinary Malay masses that Mahathir supposedly championed
profit from the strong economy? By most accounts, it passed them by. It was also during this period that the phenomena of corruption, cronyism and nepotism became ever more discernible.
\Whilst there was a coterie of Malay businessmen who benefitted from the Daim Zainuddin
connection with Mahathir, those businessmen who were under the direct patronage of the latter were all non-Malays. Names such as Francis Yeoh, Ananda Krishnan, Vincent Tan and Lee Kim Yew all easily come to mind. If Mahathir was a Malay racist, he would never have allowed
himself to be surrounded or so closely associated with such non-Malay individuals.
Fourth, when the state of Trengganu came to be under opposition rule following the 1999 general elections, Mahathir had no compunction whatsoever in discontinuing the petroleum royalty that Petronas was supposed to pay to the state government. It was a blatant act of abuse and discrimination against the state's population which was more than 95% Malay, one which arguably was in breach of the agreement Petronas had signed with the state.
No racist would blatantly disadvantage his own race, going by the definition of a racist given above. That Mahathir so unhesitatingly discriminated against a whole population of people who are his own race speaks volume of the fact that he is not a racist.
Fifth, in the 1999 general elections, a large part of the Malay electorate voted against Umno Baru in protest against Mahathir's conduct in his persecution of Anwar Ibrahim. With Malay votes almost evenly split between government and opposition, it was only the non-Malay votes which rescued many Umno candidates from losing. In the one single act that more than any other weakened Malay domination of the country's political landscape, after the 1999 general elections, Mahathir proceeded to delineate parliamentary constituencies resulting in more racially-mixed constituencies where non-Malay voters hold the balance of power.
Most tellingly, states with overwhelmingly Malay voters did not get any new parliamentary constituency in the delineation exercise. If there is any definitive act to prove that Mahathir is not a racist, this is the one, for what kind of racist would weaken his own race's hold on political power?
Hopefully, the preceding exposition would silence once and for all those, especially among the non-Malays who are so unfairly accusing Mahathir of racism. A person whose many actions, when he was the most powerful person in the country, were to the detriment and victimisation of his own race cannot logically be described as a racist.
Those many, mainly non-Malay, voices which are presently pinning the label of Malay racist on Mahathir doth protest too much. They should cease and desist. Who could forget that a bit more than a decade ago, they were the ones so vociferously and fiercely supporting him. They must have been so stupid to be so easily fooled for the man then surely was the same as the man now – look at his deeds, dudes, always his deeds. Never just the words, especially not those of a politician.
We sentenced him to death based on his actions, not his words
I got no time, will someone please bust this easily bustable spin ?
Anyway, let me just say this for now, calling oneself a "Pribumi" is already racist lah ... Just WTF you think you are? What "Pri"? Does it refer to "Primates" like "Monkeys"? When did Mamak Mahathir stepped on the shore of this land to qualify him for a "Primate" designation ?
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