Dr M charts new democratic path

Unrepentant PM talks about the challenges of managing domestic policy, Trump and China

TUN Dr Mahathir Mohamad says he is in a hurry to restore genuine democracy to Malaysia after leading the Opposition to a historic election victory this month. But now the veteran politician is settling into his second stint as prime minister, he is reluctant to acknowledge his role in building the flawed political system that reached its nadir under Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, the former protégé he ousted at the May 9 polls.

“I want to ensure that the country becomes once again democratic,” Dr Mahathir told the Financial Times, his finger still stained with ink from the vote that toppled the ruling party he once led. “At the same time, we have to reduce the capacity for abuse by the prime minister.”

The 92-year-old leader has returned to power as the head of an improbable alliance of former political enemies, portraying himself as a reformer ready to move ahead after apologising for the mistakes of the past.

In an interview, however, he is far from apologetic. He insists that it is Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim – his former deputy prime minister who was jailed first under Dr Mahathir and then under Najib on politically motivated sodomy charges – who has learnt his lesson. “When I was in power, I was no authoritarian,” said Dr Mahathir, dismissing his pre-election public apology for previous errors as politeness and “Malay custom”.

“The fact is that people say I did something wrong. I do not agree with them,” Dr Mahathir said at the lakeside office of his foundation in Putrajaya, the administrative capital he built on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

Still, he has apologised in the past for promoting Najib, which he has described as the “biggest mistake” of his life. During his first stint in office, Dr Mahathir appointed Najib to his Cabinet and supported his bid to become prime minister in 2009.

Now, as he embarks on his second spell, he faces the daunting task of reforming the political system, stabilising the state’s finances and restoring the international reputation of the nation of 31 million people.

“Soon I’ll be 93,” he said, wearing a trademark safari suit bearing a “Mahathir” name tag. “I will try to accomplish as much as possible in the short time given to me.”

Dr Mahathir said he would hand power to Anwar, 70, within two years, completing an uneasy reconciliation with the man for whom he has now secured a full royal pardon.

Dr Mahathir groomed Anwar as his successor in the 1990s. But after the pair fell out, Anwar was arrested in 1998.

“I think he is quite a different man now,” Dr Mahathir said, while sparing in his appreciation of Anwar. “I think he realises that things do not just go the way you want it to go. So he will have to be a bit more patient.”

Known for his sweeping generalisations about racial differences and for championing the Malay majority, Dr Mahathir heads a more diverse government, including the first ethnically Chinese finance minister for more than 40 years.

Although some political analysts have argued that the victory of his Alliance of Hope (Pakatan Harapan) coalition heralded a break from the racially driven politics of the past, Dr Mahathir said splits between the main ethnic groups – Malays, Chinese and Indians – still run deep.

“At the top level, there’s less racism in this government,” he said. “But at the ground level, the racial feeling is still very strong.”

The return of Dr Mahathir, who was a leading critic of the West while prime minister from 1981 to 2003, will reverberate beyond Malaysia, as he renews working relationships with old friends such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He will also have to deal with newer leaders of the world superpowers – US president Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping.

While Najib sought a close relationship with Trump, Dr Mahathir said he had no plans to meet the US president for now because “I don’t know how to work with a person who changes his mind overnight”. “For example, he wants to meet the president of North Korea, then he doesn’t want to meet, and now he’s saying maybe it’s going to happen,” he said.

As for Beijing, Dr Mahathir said he had always supported the rise of China before it started enforcing its claims over almost the entire South China Sea, where Malaysia is one of several nations locked in territorial disputes with Beijing.

Even as he tries to renegotiate a swath of Chinese investment deals agreed by Najib, Dr Mahathir warns that South-East Asian nations have to be careful about how hard they push back against Beijing.

“The powerful will take what they will, the weak will concede what they have, what they must,” he said.

At a time when Xi has been boosting ties with authoritarian leaders throughout South-East Asia, Pakatan’s victory appears to represent an unexpected win for democracy in the region.

Dr Mahathir, who has always enjoyed needling neighbouring Singapore and its long-ruling People’s Action party, said the electoral earthquake in Malaysia would reverberate across the narrow Straits of Johor.

“I think the people of Singapore, like the people in Malaysia, must be tired of having the same government, the same party since independence,” he said.

Malaysia’s own “revolutionary changes” have definitely been good for Dr Mahathir, who finally believes he has answered the many detractors who dubbed him an “authoritarian” and a “dictator” in the past.

“When I came back into politics, I found that the labels that I got tend to cause people to believe that I was really like that and therefore they should reject me,” he said.

“Now, if they say anything, I’m already prime minister. The most they can do is to throw me out.” This article is reproduced from Financial Times