Will Mahathir Expire As A Hero Or A Zero?

Will Mahathir expire as a hero or a zero?

The truoble with the man is that he squandered two opportunities to make Bolehland great.

In his first iteration as the country's 4th Pm, the Machiavellian Mahathir mostly succeeded in emasculating the institutions that were needed as a check and balance in a thriving democracy, and succeeded in concentrating all the powers in the hands of one man - the prime minister.

That last led eventually to the kleptocracy - the world's worst case according to the US Doj - that Mahathir did help to oust but failed eventually to prevent its return.

In his second iteration as the 7th Bolehland Pm, by the grace of his fellow PH coalition partners, Mahathir still failed to grasp or understand that in a multi-racial and multi-cultural nation with a sizeable minority, the prime minister should be an inclusive Pm - the Pm for all.

The first indication that all was not right was when, after grandstanding at the UN to ratify ICERD, Mahathir meekly turned tail at the very first sign of objection from the opposition.

That was soon followed up with the turning back on ratifying the Rome Treaty, again, at the very first sign of opposition from Malay based party dUMno and Pas the Islamic party.

What all that signalled to the largely Malay based opposition was that Mahathir could be made to dance when it came to anything remotely alleged to touch on the race and religion narrative.

It emboldened the opposition to try to colour any issue in a racial and religious light.

Mahathir's failure to put a stop to the increasingly racial and religious biased discourse just made things worse.

The final straw came with Mahathir joining the Malay Dignity Congress that only confirmed to dUMNo and Pas that Mahathir was now an easy bird in their hands to manipulate.

The Pm's continued ambivalence/reluctance to honour the PH coalition agreement to pass the baton to Anwar by setting a date for that, added to the hastening power grab.

It eventually led to greedy, impatient and power hungry traitors within Mahathir's own party and some in Anwar's PKR, staging a political coup with the help of the happily willing opposition that led to Bolehland's Day Of Ignominy on that Sunday, 1st March 2020.

So, will Mahathir expire as a hero or zero?

It is your call.