Will wonders ever cease?
HERE’S one for Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: The bookies gave lopsided odds against it, but Malaysia’s 92-year-old Mahathir Mohamad defeated his onetime protégé, the incumbent Najib Razak at Wednesday’s fiercely contested polls.
DOING IT FROM WITHOUT. The upset win is Malaysia’s first transfer of power since independence. Mahathir’s stunning election upset puts a finis to the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO, aka Barisan National coalition) six-decade-long monopoly. The UMNO dominated Malaysia politics by promoting the Malay-Muslim majority over Chinese and Indian minorities. In the early 1970s, it pushed through a vast affirmative action program.
MORE SURPISES. It took a united opposition for the impossible to happen. Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister, came out of retirement and defected from the party he helped entrench in order to lead the opposition. Mr. Mahathir is former patron-turned-foe of both the opposition’s longtime leader, the imprisoned Anwar Ibrahim, and the incumbent prime minister Najib Razak. Anwar Ibrahim and Mahathir, erstwhile implacable foes, joined forces to contest a tricky general election where the electoral precincts were supposed to have been divvied to favor UMNO. The curious chemistry was, on hindsight, a stroke of genius. Mahathir proved to be the catalyst for a “Malay tsunami” – the main challenger to shift the country’s ethnic majority from the party they have long been loyal to.
Anwar Ibrahim is in custody on charges of sodomy and corruption and cannot take any office until he is pardoned and released. Mahathir will step aside after serving initial year(s) and will hand over the prime minister’s post to Anwar once he is pardoned. Abangan.
*** NOSTALGIA. Remember how our then President Fidel V. Ramos got along swimmingly with the PM Mahatir Mohamad? They drove together the Malaysian Proton in Metro Manila and the two went about their business without letting Sabah get in the way.
On his assumption as the 12th President of the Philippines in June, 1992, Ramos promised to end the Meralco brown-outs. We had Christmas lights by December and PFVR put the Philippines back in business. Wall Street Journal statistics showed the Philippines outstripping South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong in drawing investments. Reviving hopes and spirited enthusiasm for the Philippines (“Back in Business in Asia”) he got the country back on its feet.
During his official visit to Vienna, many, including the discriminating free-lance journalist Pat Sutter, swung from objecting to Cha-Cha (Charter Change) to endorsing Mr. Ramos to run again in 1988. Hopes held high… until the President received reports on the temperature in Manila. No less than his predecessor, former President Corazon Aquino, would lead the protest against making an exception or amendment to the constitutional limitation to a one 6-year term to the Presidency. Day turned into gloom. Why put a damper to success? Wiser on insight, we could have been spared the debacle of what followed ex post facto Ramos. I remember President Ramos’ answer to the suggestion to return to the Presidency after a 6-year interval: After the hiatus he would be too old for the President’s job.
Mahatir has his second wind as PM at 92. Ramos became a nonagenarian on 18 March this year. Can FVR make a comeback in 2022 at 94 years and break the record of his friend Mahatir?
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“Successful ‘Balikatan,’ so far” — News item from Zambales. This year’s Balikatan exercise is the 34th iteration of the bilateral exercise between the AFP and the US Pacific Command that ends on May 18. Top tune revival: “Put your head on my shoulder.”
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A first all-Filipino world title match on May 26 in Fresno, California, between Super-flyweight king Jerwin Ancajas against challenger Jonas Sultan. A devout Catholic, Ancajas will seek an audience with Pope Francis. Dunno if His Holiness will advise him to turn the other cheek. FEEDBACK: