Mahathir Seeks Another Path Back to Malaysian Power

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Dr Mahathir Mohamad may be 96 but his ambitions remain as red-hot as ever. His party may have been reduced to nothing more than a minor hiccup in Parliament but that has not stopped him from scheming to regain power. The recently launched National Recovery Council (NRC) is but his latest scheme to convince the nation that he ought to lead the country in these difficult times. 

He says he’s only interested in helping the country by offering advice but make no mistake, he is positioning himself as an alternative to Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s failed government. Don’t believe that Mahathir is content with an advisory role; it’s just not in the nature of the man.

He knows the country is in turmoil. He knows that people are getting so frustrated that they’ll be ready soon enough to embrace anyone who promises them salvation. He sees an opportunity to make a comeback and is seizing upon it. In the same way that he used the 1MDB scandal to topple Najib Tun Razak, he is now seeking to use the pandemic to topple Muhyiddin Yassin.

Mahathir has, of course, been pushing for an autocratic body (similar to the 1969 National Operations Council) to run the country ever since he lost power in 2020 following the infamous Sheraton Move. He has argued that the politicians are too divided and have made such a mess of things that they ought to be temporarily pushed aside and non-partisan professionals brought in to steer the country back to health. It sounds reasonable, but what he has in mind is an essentially authoritarian construct that would allow him to rule the country without a popular mandate and with few checks and balances.

He blames politicians for the mess the country is in but conveniently sidesteps his own role in Malaysia’s slide into dysfunction and disarray. It is typical of him that he now shifts the blame to others while claiming that he alone has the answers and the experience to save the country. He says he is acting apolitically but apolitical is certainly not a term that anyone can safely apply to Mahathir. He says he only wants to offer solutions instead of criticising the government, but that has not stopped him from agitating for Muhyiddin’s ouster. His arguments and his actions are too full of contradictions to be accepted at face value.



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