Mahathir's perverted logic: good material in, garbage out

Dr Mahathir is living in fear nowadays. He has to forsake his restful days to help out UMNO. Which means that Najib is incapable of leading UMNO. That can only be the most rational deduction.

He is now the torch bearer for UMNO. UMNO must be rational he says and he says that while cavorting with the most irrational UMNO surrogate, Ibrahim Ali and Perkasa. UMNO members must now support Ibrahim Ali if UMNO leaders choose Ibrahim as candidate in GE13. UMNO members must be rational to accept a most irrational Malay candidate. That’s the inverse logic of Mahathir. Good material in, garbage put. We know Dr Mahathir- he does the opposite of what he says.

Mahathir is urging Malays to stand on their heads. Not good, too much blood rushing to the brain. Malays must now stand upright naturally. Rejecting UMNO and its ways, is the rational behavior. Supporting UMNO goes against the rational.

UMNO can get 2/3 majority if its members do not sabotage candidates chosen by the leadership. He is just confirming that despite having 3.2 million members, it hasn’t got leadership talent. Hence his UMNO is full of half past six leaders. He is saying that in advance because he knows that Najib will field many non-UMNO members as candidates in the next election. We wish him and Najib good luck. After leading UMNO and its successor party for so long, both don’t seem to understand the UMNO Malay mind.

I am beginning to think that what Daim once told me will become true. Come nomination day, UMNO is 70% fit to do battle. Come election date, it has lost 30% of the seats.

Mahathir’s motives behind his overarching and at times forceful articulation on behalf of UMNO are irrelevant to us. Malaysians must remind him that in 2004, Pak Lah got the biggest mandate in history with courtesy from Mahathir. People gave Pak Lah the biggest mandate, because they were celebrating the exit of Mahathir. It wasn’t because of Pak Lah who in 2008 then led UMNO/BN to its most disastrous outing. Let us now do a second celebration to give Najib and UMNO its most crushing defeat.

He faces the grim prospects of seeing his UMNO dispatched in the coming general elections. For 22 years, UMNO and he became one. So at stake is actually his legacy.

I will not dispute the opinion of many that Mahathir is the best PM we have ever had. Perhaps people are mesmerized by his vision of a grandiose Malaysia. He was swilling to back up his vision by embarking on the grandest of physical developments. During his term of office, Malaysians marveled at Putrajaya, Daya Bumi, PETRONAS Twin towers, KLIA and many other monumental developments. Malaysia was flooded with first world facilities unrivalled by many countries in south East Asia. In the Muslim world, Mahathir was hailed a hero especially by the despotic rulers in many Arab speaking world.

From Mahathir they have learnt one object lesson-people can be deceived an comforted into submission by giving them illusions of greatness.

Given those physical achievements how do we rate Mahathir? Since this is a season of idioms and allegories, I would to share with readers a story.

It’s about a rich and powerful person. Let us call him Dr X.  While endowed in those areas, Dr X is a sickly person. Not a single month passes without him contacting and developing some debilitating illnesses. He has gone to the best hospitals and private clinics but to no avail. So he made a covenant with Allah, that if during 3 months, he is free from any illness, he will bestow a gift of a dwelling or its equivalent to orphans. A promise to Allah is a solemn one and our subject in this story knows that.

After the vow and promise, Dr X was free from all form of sickness and illness. Still to reinforce his belief that this has indeed been a miracle from God, he extended the trial period to another month. Even after varying the original covenant, the Dr X did not contact any illness.

He is now convinced that this was indeed a benediction from God. So he now must honor his part of the covenant.

So he started an advertisement to offer one of his palatial properties in the city. He offers for sale a property worth RM30 million with enough rooms and compound to potentially house an orphanage. He offers to sell the property for the sum of RM500, 000. With the provision that whoever buys the property at RM 500,000 must also buy an old cabinet inside the house for RM29.5 million. Therefore there were actually 2 items for sale. The house and the old cabinet. He found one serious willing buyer who duly signed the necessary papers buying the house and the cabinet.

In his own ways, Dr X is a sufficiently religious person.  He hasn’t forgotten his covenant with God. He takes RM500, 000 and hands over the money to the trustees of an orphanage entrusting them to use the money to build an orphanage. Dr X has therefore fulfilled his promise to God. Having done that, he still makes RM 29.5 million.

It’s true – Mahathir has given so many things that Malaysians can be proud of. The value of all those is RM500, 000. Mahathir has taken RM29.5 million.

DR Mahathir is busy nowadays giving MPs and ADUNs from the various states pep talks. Presumably he has been telling the UMNO legislators the same advise. Be rational. But he must not forget- every UMNO legislative member who attended the meetings with Mahathir at the Perdana Foundation, think and believe that they are as winnable as Najib and Muhyidin are.