KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 16 — Simply challenging the views of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad will do nothing for nation building if his critics do not address the country’s culture, former Umno minister Zaid Ibrahim said today.
While saying that the still-influential former prime minister’s time at the helm of the country was over, Zaid (picture) indicated that the mindset of the Malays, the largest ethnic group in the country, could hamper changes.
While Zaid said that the country could not move forward if it was stuck with Dr Mahathir’s idea of non-opposition, he pointed out that few were strong enough to challenge Dr Mahathir.
“But who is strong enough to take him on, you need to be financially strong and you must have a Malay base that is broad enough to accept your will. If the Malay base had been broad-minded enough, I probably would have been more successful.
“The problem of challenging Mahathir is not just the person, it’s the culture,” Zaid said during a discussion at the launch of the book, Awakening: The Abdullah Badawi Years.
Zaid compared Dr Mahathir with his contemporary, Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew, whom Zaid said had easier success because of the “Chinese culture” in the Chinese-dominated country.
Although Zaid said the Chinese culture differed from the Malay culture, he did not elaborate on what he meant by those two terms.
Zaid acknowledged that Dr Mahathir was a “good politician”, and noted that the prime minister of 22 years contributed to the country’s well being.
“He did some good things for the country, in the sense he instilled some fear in the people, he’s very good at that, you need that sort of discipline,” he said, alluding to the country’s longest-serving prime minister’s lack of tolerance for dissent.
“But his time is over, this idea that he knows best, nobody else matters, that sort of thing, it’s past,” he added.
“As a nation, you have to grow out of that,” Zaid said.
As a contributor to the book, Zaid was replying to a question on whether Malaysia can move forward with the still-influential Dr Mahathir regularly commenting on the country’s affairs.
Although Dr Mahathir had retired about a decade ago, his legacy continues to loom large over his successor Abdullah, with comparisons often made between the two’s achievements and approaches in leading the country.
Fellow contributor Jason Tan noted that Dr Mahathir was viewed by many as a hero and is a skilful politician who is also able to sell a success story.
“Unless you sell a better story, unless you are able to disarm what he says, unless you are able to show you offer something better to the people and so that when the people express the will of the people in elections, they come with you,” the editor of BFM’s Merdeka magazine said.
The book, jointly-edited by academics Prof Bridget Welsh and Prof James Chin, is a collection of contributions from more than 30 individuals ranging from academics to politicians, and also includes an interview with Abdullah, Dr Mahathir’s hand-picked successor.
The launch in Malaysia was initially set for August 16, but was postponed by the editors owing to concerns about the “politicisation” of the book, and the media’s sensationalisation in their reportage of the book’s contents.
The launch of the book in Singapore, set for August 30, for which PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar was invited, was also cancelled after the postponement of the Malaysian launch.
