Fierce but frail, Malaysia leader aims to topple former protégé
MAHATHIR Mohamad, who led Malaysia for decades with dagger-sharp rhetoric and increasingly autocratic ways, is 92 and in frail health. But he wants his old job back.
To do it, Mahathir, one of the world’s most durable political survivors, has engaged in yet another act of reinvention. This time, he is allying himself with opposition figures he once repressed in the name of beating his former protégé, Najib Razak, whom he helped make prime minister in 2009.
The man who defined much of Malaysia’s political history is, in effect, standing before both the country as a whole and the new opposition allies he once persecuted and asking them to ignore the past. However, he is certainly not apologising.
“When it comes to the election, forget about everything and think only of winning,” Mahathir said at a recent campaign rally in Penang.
“I know I’m not popular with all the people,” he said, continuing with a hint of sarcastic edge. “Remember, I am ‘cruel’ or a ‘pharaoh’. That’s all right. In politics, you get called all types of names.”
Mahathir is campaigning as the leader of the opposition coalition, Pakatan Harapan, and if he does rise to power again in parliamentary elections this year, he will become the oldest head of government in the world.
But in vying for the post he left in 2003, when he was 78, Mahathir faces an uphill battle against Najib even though the prime minister stands accused of taking $731 million in government funds and depositing the money into his personal bank account. The incumbent has a formidable grip on power, plentiful campaign funding and the advantage of parliamentary district lines that are skewed in his favour – in part because of the political system Mahathir helped establish.
Najib heads the governing United Malays National Organisation, Mahathir’s former party, which has held power since independence in 1957.
“Mahathir’s candidacy is a kind of Hail Mary pass from the opposition that has spent the past three years beset by infighting,” said Ibrahim Suffian, director of the Merdeka Center, an independent polling agency.
Running with him for deputy prime minister is Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, whose husband, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, was imprisoned under Mahathir for five years on corruption and sodomy charges.
Now, Mahathir is urging members of the opposition to put aside their past enmity and unite behind his leadership.
“This time, we are together to replace the government,” he said. “The government has been there for more than 60 years. It is time it goes.”
The willingness of his onetime foes to line up behind Mahathir’s candidacy illustrates the weakness of an opposition that has never held power and is fragmented by ethnic divisions and personal rivalries.
Without Mahathir, analysts say, the four-party opposition coalition has no leader who can unify its factions and appeal to rural, ethnically Malay voters, who make up a decisive voting bloc.
“The reason Mahathir was named as the candidate for prime minister is quite straightforward: There is nobody else,” said Wan Saiful Wan Jan, chief executive of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs in Kuala Lumpur.
Najib, 64, who last faced voters in 2013, must call an election by August. Some predict the vote could come as early as April because it would ensure the absence of Anwar, 70, who was imprisoned three years ago under Najib after a second sodomy conviction.
A skilled orator who nearly defeated Najib in 2013, Anwar is scheduled to be released from prison in June. His supporters say all the charges against him have been politically motivated.
As prime minister from 1981 to 2003, Mahathir modernised the country’s economy and built landmark projects, including the Petronas towers in Kuala Lumpur, which at one point were the world’s tallest buildings.
He occasionally set off international outrage with antiSemitic comments, including calling Jews “arrogant” and accusing them of deliberately trying to wreck Malaysia’s economy.
He also helped establish a strong central government that Najib has exploited to squelch any independent investigation of the money transfers to his personal account.
The US Justice Department is conducting a criminal inquiry into more than $3.5 billion missing from the investment fund known as One Malaysia Development Berhad, which Najib oversaw. The Justice Department also has filed numerous lawsuits to seize $1.7 billion in assets including jewellery, real estate and Hollywood movie rights, that it says Najib’s family members and associates acquired with money from the fund and laundered through US financial institutions.
Najib has denied any wrongdoing. And President Donald Trump greeted him warmly at the White House in September despite the Justice Department’s corruption case.
Mahathir will turn 93 in July, and there is little expectation he would serve out a full fiveyear term. In effect, he is serving as a stand-in for a future leader, but for whom is not entirely clear.
“His role is to win the election and hold the position until someone else comes,” Wan Saiful said.