Surprise return of Mahathir Mohamad
Last week, Malaysians broke national and international records by electing Dr. Mahathir Mohamad to become the oldest elected leader in the world at 92 to save them from rising cost of living and a government that was engaged in many alleged corrupt practices. Mahathir who was prime minister from 1981 to 2003 set to work immediately. he named a few cabinet members, among whom was Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as the deputy prime minister; the first time a woman is holding such a position in Malaysia. Dr. Azizah is the wife of Anwar Ibrahim, 70, himself a former deputy to Mahathir Mohamad before they fell out in 1998. Secondly, he sought and got a royal pardon for Anwar Ibrahim himself who was serving a second jail term in as many decades. Malaysia operates a constitutional monarchy, hence the need for the sultan’s intervention. The arrangement is for Mahathir to hand over power to Anwar within two years.
Mahathir was dragged out of retirement in the last two years when corruption allegations continued to mount against former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, leading to street protests in November 2016 calling for his resignation. Najib, the sixth prime minister of Malaysia, is the son of a former prime minister Tun Abdul Razak. He came to power in 2009 at the time that his boss, then prime minister Tun Abdullah was considered weak and a people pleaser. Dr. Mahathir who handed over to Tun Abdullah disliked his successor’s politics and feared that he was destroying the nation in his effort to please everyone. senior party officials loyal to Mahathir (including Najib) then nudged Tun Abdullah aside and gave power to Najib.
Najib was beloved by Mahathir and initially enjoyed a criticism holiday from his mentor. This may be due to the fact that it was Najib’s father who brought Mahathir back to the party, Barisan Nasional (National Front) when he was kicked out for his radical ideals and contentious writings a habit he fostered since he was a young medical student in Singapore.
When however, Najib created a sovereign wealth fund called One Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and funded it with debts instead of investment, and when $700 million of that fund was traced to Najib’s personal accounts, Mahathir was no longer so forgiving. “It is not a sovereign wealth fund,” he argued. Najib’s defence was that the $700 million was a personal gift to him by a Saudi monarch. During all this, Anwar was in the trenches as the leader of the opposition politics in Malaysia, was facing new allegations of sodomy, and was later convicted in 2015. Anwar Ibrahim said that they were trumped up charges.
It was while serving the prison term that the opposition, now led by Mahathir, defeated the party that had been ruling since independence. Anwar almost succeeded in becoming the prime minister in 2008 but fell short of the parliamentary seats required. All these years, his wife, Dr. Wan Azizah, now the deputy prime minister, won and warmed a parliamentary seat for him preparatory to Anwar becoming a prime minister.
Born on 10 July 1925, the 92-year old Dr. Mahathir Mohamad ruled Malaysia for 22 years. he recorded tremendous development for his country and was instrumental in launching Malaysia into the Asian Tiger club (to join South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan). During his five terms in office, he was accused of being a bully - a style inspired by President Park of South Korea and Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore.
While Malaysians have obviously given Mahathir a bigger mandate, we think a larger lesson for all, including Nigeria, is that leaders cannot take the interests of their people for granted without suffering the consequences - however influential they once were. We also commend Malaysians for changing their leaders peacefully without any acts of violence. Malaysia is still one of the most stable economies in Southeast Asia. This is hoping that the new leaders will learn from the mistakes of the ousted ones.