Dr Mahathir: "Maybe I’m wrong—and I admit I am frequently wrong."
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Gasp gawd omigosh, you frequently wrong? Where got one (mana adalah) Tun! wakakaka.
But that's what The Grand Olde Man said, as reported by The Malay Mail in its news article Dr M: Election candies a waste, voters no longer bite.
Following UMNO's loss, specifically in the recent Sungai Limau by-election and generally in the May GE-13, he stated the above as a humble* qualifier to his prognosis for politicians in future elections.
* Dr Mahathir humble? my second wakakaka on him.
He pontificated that voters would no longer swayed by election pork-barreling** but rather by 'the actions of political leaders who show they can help the electorate improve their economic situation’.
** a government appropriation, bill, or policy that supplies funds for local improvements (eg. in the various by-elections in Ijok, Sg Limau, Sibu, Hulu Selangor, etc) designed to ingratiate legislators with their constituents).
Our Malaysian styled pork-barreling have been far more crude, made with just campaign ‘promises’, many of which were not financially sound (including some from the opposition).
He summarized: “Those who do not support, will still not support. The money given is a waste, whether it is the government’s money or not.”
He summarized: “Those who do not support, will still not support. The money given is a waste, whether it is the government’s money or not.”
Amin Tun, though you should have said this eons ago.
However, on second thoughts, I may have to disagree a wee bit on pork barreling. Actually Chinese can support BN if two factors are present: firstly, the pork barreling should be about favourable long term educational prospects for the Chinese community as not all Chinese are well off like Vincent Tan wakakaka, and secondly, the opposition (to BN, especially UMNO) in a specific constituency is unworthy or not to be trusted, wakakaka - I'm afraid you have to work that out yourself, but a hint, it's not a simplistic ABU.
Sungai Limau could possibly (though not probably) have been an above case in point if the election day was not a Monday, a working day. But even then, there was a small but discernible Chinese swing towards BN. Of course MCA and Gerakan would be magnifying the Chinese swing as much as possible while as expected, DAP would be doing the exact opposite, wakakaka. I'll return to this point later.
Back to Dr Mahathir, wakakaka - No doubt, and in practical terms 'unnecessarily', still smarting from UMNO's loss to PAS in the by-election, he has, to his magnificent credit, refrained from directly condemning the bloody Chinese for failing to come out in full force to support his son’s party, wakakaka.
I toyed with the word ‘unnecessarily’ to describe his smarting at UMNO’s loss because really, to lose in a PAS stronghold like Sungai Limau would not be a shame to Mukhriz's efforts nor unexpected, if we remember that the state constituency has reputedly been held by the Islamic party for nine (9) terms.
In fact, I'd even go as far as to say Mukhriz and his team did a fairly good job, shaving PAS' majority down by more than half, to only 1084 instead of the 2774 the Islamic party enjoyed just a mere 6 months ago.
Nonetheless Dr Mahathir must be clenching his fists and gritting his teeth at the thought of just a swing of 543 votes for the UMNO candidate, Dr Ahmad Sohaimi Lazim to win.
But I suspect Dr Mahathir has more than a party member’s interest/regret in UMNO’s loss in Sungai Limau, and I can think of two possible reasons.
One is of course about his son’s standing in the UMNO upper leadership echelon. A victory for UMNO in the by-election, one which Mukhriz had put his heart and soul into the campaigning, including swallowing his pride to woo the Chinese there after having publicly snubbed them, would have endowed Dr Mahathir's son with very strong credentials as a party strongman on his own merits, an UMNO warlord so to speak.
In this, Mukhriz's earlier attempt to acquire for himself that heroic warlord status by snubbing the Chinese Kedahans in hostile manner a la his dad and Ali Rustam was perhaps a strategic error, one in which an African saying would be most applicable, that one shouldn't tease Mother Crocodile until one has safely crossed the river, wakakaka.
Pakatan left no stone unturned in reminding the Chinese of Mukhriz's snub.
Poor Mukhriz was then flowing along with the despicable mores of most of his competitors in UMNO's VP-wannabes, hoping that by brandishing the vocal and psychological Panca Warisan, he would be accepted and supported as an ethnic warrior by the party delegates. Frankly, to his questionable credit, he nearly succeeded, obtaining 91 votes to Hishamuddin’s 100, thus losing by just a mere 9 votes but in practical terms, only 5.
Yes, because if Mukhriz had secured that extra 5 votes he would have pipped Hishamuddin by 96 to 95, but alas for him, that didn't happen. And we also know that he had been the far more popular candidate than Hishamuddin, but alas for him, the UMNO party voting system didn't favour popularity.
And guess who marshalled those divisional votes to ensure Hisham, for all his worthless incumbency as a VP, fell just barely over the finishing line by a mere 100 votes to Mukhriz 91?
Yup, 'twas KJ and Shahrizat, wakakaka.
From a Chinese, may I on behalf of other Chinese Malaysians, sincerely thank KJ and Shahrizat, not because we want Hisham to win or for Mukhriz to lose, but for saving Chinese Malaysians from being excoriated (once again) by Dr Mahathir, wakakaka. And f**king eat that too, Ali, wakakaka.
Now, the second reason for Dr Mahathir clenching his fists and gritting his teeth at UMNO’s loss in Sungai Limau would be, I suspect, from his bitter memories of his own loss in 1969 in the parliamentary constituency of Kota Setar Selatan, which coincidentally embraced the state constituency of Sungai Limau.
In the 60’s, Dr Mahathir was notorious as an 'ultra', one of UMNO's frightening ‘Young Turks’ and was said to have arrogantly declared he didn't require Chinese support in the election.
Okay then, in May 1969 he lost to Yusof Rawa (Yusof Abdullah) of PAS by 989 votes.
Guess what? He blamed his loss on the very people he had so arrogantly declared he didn't require votes from, wakakaka. In 1974 he wisely selected a different parliamentary constituency, Kubang Pasu, wakakaka.
I wonder what Dr Mahathir (and Malaysia) would have become if Tunku had not expelled him from UMNO in 1969. Story was that Tunku wanted to have him arrested for railing against his Administration and for writing his ethnocentric diatribe in a book which you are all familiar with, The Malay Dilemma, but was persuaded from taking that action.
Anyway, the loss by UMNO in Sungai Limau must have triggered bitter memories of his own loss in 1969 to Yusof Rawa in Kota Setar Selatan. Oh, those damn bloody Chinese, wakakaka. Oh, that bloody PAS, wakakaka.
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| I was the only man to defeat Dr Mahathir wakakaka |
But alas, the poor but damn bloody Chinese, wakakaka, have once again been forcefully thrust into the political limelight, supposedly as potential kingmakers, really the last place or role in which they want to be.
From the MCA-Gerakan and DAP arguments over the Chinese minor swing-back to BN in Sungai Limau, notwithstanding Chinese registered voters numbering only 7% of the voters in that state constituency, you would have imagined it had been the fierce and acrimonious election battle in Taiwan between Chen Shui-bian’s Democratic Progressive Party and the Kuomintang, wakakaka.
Only my matey, DAP strategist and Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming, said the sensible thing, that ‘it was hard to judge whether the Chinese votes had indeed gone back to BN because they only make up 7% of the voters’ and that only 50% turned up to vote.
Far more important than the MCA-Gerakan versus DAP arguments, both PAS and UMNO have been pondering, pontificating and pulpiteering on the Chinese factor in the by-election, despite their small numbers, because somewhere therein may possibly lie the secret formula for winning those damn bloody Chinese votes, wakakaka.
The UMNO candidate, Ahmad Sohaimi, lamented “I could have won if the Chinese voters chose me but I hardly got 600 votes. It wasn't only because they voted PAS but many of them failed to vote. I wonder why?”
Did they vote PAS? Maybe some though I think not in the general sense.
But Yang Berhormat-Ta'Jadi, the problem could be in your EC, being too clever by half in holding an election on a bloody Monday. A by-election on a working Monday, on a seat which won't change the current Kedah government, and you expect the Chinese to all turn up?
And as for PAS, despite all the brave talk By Mahfuz Omar, in view of its May 2013 majority in Sungai Limau slashed brutally by more than half after just 6 months, its strategists are now bunkered down to consider their ‘re-consideration’ about being part of Pakatan, wakakaka.
You know, some years ago (2009 to be precise), in another by-election in Bukit Gantang, for a federal seat, Muhyiddin was stunned by Chinese support for PAS increasing from 65 to 75%. Mind you, ‘twas not just any PAS candidate but one they loved, namely Nizar Jamaluddin.
But it seemed to have propelled Muhyiddin Yassin into pledging that UMNO would work hard at improving the voting trend of all racesfor BN candidates in future elections.
He said that Bukit Gantang showed the anti-BN tsunami witnessed in the 2008 general election was yet to subside – in fact it has worsened - and mumbled:
"We hope this trend will not continue, but as we are facing a serious scenario, a transformation process has to take place soonest possible."
Presumably he had meant for the transformation process to start within UMNO itself, because he said:
"Although, we look after the well-being of the Malays, we are also fair to the other races, but some say that we are not fair. Therefore, we must act now before it is too late. We also need to support the leadership of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and strive to regain the people's support for Umno and BN."
Following that, The Malaysian Insider reported in Two years to regain people’s trust - Muhyiddin that he said the primary focus of action during the two-year period would be to ensure that the leadership at all levels understood the new direction of the party and took measures to revive the party’s image and improve the people’s perception of it.
Well and good, but we know what really happened after that, no small thanks to Dr Mahathir’s Perkasa, and the Chinese were once again stampeded into voting for PAS in 2013 as they did in 1969 and 2008.
But not unlike Dr Mahathir, Muhyiddin also suffered from the same Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde schizophrenia because a few days after his proposed UMNO would work hard at improving the voting trend of all raceshe said he was confused, perplexed, and puzzled by the Chinese, considering that BN had poured in millions of ringgit to improve Chinese language schools, yet those presumably-ungrateful Chinese continued to vote overwhelmingly for the Pakatan candidates in both by-elections in Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau.
He stated he couldn’t understand ‘… why Malaysian Chinese voters continue to treat the Barisan Nasional with disdain.’
Hey man, this was just 3 days after he had pledged for BN to begin a ‘transformation process' to regain the people's support for UMNO and BN.
Perhaps his public lamentation against the Chinese was aimed at the heartland, to convince the faithful to re-marshal beneath the keris-ed banner, by his fear-hate propaganda as reflected in his statement to Mingguan Malaysia then:
“The Chinese even though are a minority group feel that they have the deciding power because the Malays are split into three groups … In such a situation, they can decide the outcome of an election and this can be seen from the general election and the by-elections.”
“They think they have the power to decide. It is not only the Chinese but the Indian community as well.’’
Muhyiddin sure wanted to have his cake and eat it as well. But that's the whole bloody trouble as Chinese have been troubled by UMNO's hot-cold treatment towards them, one reeking of insincerity and even duplicity. But more than anything, Chinese don't like to be excoriated for not supporting a party. Shouldn't it be the party which should show they would serve the public, one which includes the Chinese?
As we all know, post 2013 general election, despite UMNO doing far better than it did in 2008 (mind you, not MCA, MIC or Gerakan, wakakaka), Dr Mahathir in the most lamentable fashion wrecked his fury at the Chinese, obviously UMNO's favourite punching bag.
Many like Utusan Malaysia jumped on the bandwagon to echo his vitriolic spewing of poison against the Orang Tionghua, culminating in the infamous article Apa lagi Cina mahu?, which evoked a response from me in my post and letter to Malaysiakini titled Apa lagi UMNO mahu?
It appears that to UMNO, the Chinese are always in the wrong!
Today, post by-election in Sungai Limau, the Chinese have once again been shoved back into that alleged kingmaker’s role.
Alamak, all Chinese Malaysians want are only security, and the opportunity to have a good education and make a decent living.