19 April 2009

Mahathir the happiest man Part 2

Mahathir has been reading, studying and digesting the Malay mind very intensely. So intense that he could maneuver them to an extent that Malays take him as a hero without even realizing they are being deceived and follow through his dubious intend and motives.

After the 1981 big fight for Deputy President, Mahathir had the initial grip on UMNO when he balanced the TR/Musa factor. Musa was all out to make his existence felt as he was there as Deputy by the will of Mahathir.

Musa was not at all happy that TR was in the line-up again but was not showing as appointing TR as the Finance Minister was on the unanimous call from the delegates and wishes of men on the ground.

The defeat of TR was taken sorely by the public as he was the man who had done too much for the Bumiputra in the efforts of economic re-engineering of the rakyat as stipulated in the New Economic Policy which was well accepted by the people including the Non-Malays.

The ism of TR was everywhere; banking sector, commerce, politics and the public sector as he was looked upon as the de facto Prime Minister in the eyes of every Malaysian during Hussein Onn’s administration.

TR was hands on over every government project for the Malays and Bumiputra and he did his job well and accepted by the people, as there were no element of corruption and cronyism and everything he proposed and implemented gave direct impact on the people especially among the Malays and Bumiputra.

Mahathir didn’t want to appoint Musa directly as his Deputy as what has been traditionally practiced by previous Prime Minister. He did not want to have Musa to be appointed directly as he was worried Musa might have solid support from the grassroots which he was unsure of Musa allegiance to him.

He chose to witness Musa going through the severe contest with TR and to him this could be a good balancing factor for him to maintain comforts on the PM’s seat. Mahathir wanted the two factions continuously in adversity so as the 2 power men would always be put at bay.

Musa in the meanwhile was all out to make his presence felt and he started doing things which was out of norms such as using Biro Tata Negara (BTN) as his personal political tools and this irritated a lot of people including Mahathir and members of UMNO who were leaned to TR.

Musa managed to place his men to important positions among them Shahril Samad as the full minister and getting Ajib Ahmad who was too junior to be the MB of Johore to ensure good footing for him in his home state of Johore.

Musa unceremoniously sidelined Muhammat Rahmat, Jalal Abu Bakar and a few others whom he was not comfortable with.

Mahathir looked at Musa’s action as threatening but he didn’t have much worries as he knew TR was going for another round of contest for the Deputy President against Musa in 1984 and that contest would tire Musa up to the optimum.

With that contest Mahathir knew Musa would never be able to force him out as he (Musa) was not having rock-hard support from members and delegates.

Mahathir expectation was right as TR still managed to secure more than 500 votes out of 1200 delegates; a formidable support as underdog against Musa who enjoyed the total support from Mahathir in this second round of contest.

TR was once again in the cabinet line-up but was given the task to lead the Ministry of Trade replacing Tengku Ahmad Rethauddin while TR’s position in the Ministry of Finance was given to famous (to some people as notorious) Daim.

Having TR and Daim in the line-up annoyed Musa a great deal and he then realized he was just made to be the tool of Mahathir and he found it too hard to manage the new culture of materialism that had slowly crept in UMNO.

From this point Mahathir had his free hand to do anything he wished as TR was no more in the Finance Ministry. Since then the culture in UMNO latently changed and materialism slowly became the order of the day.

Musa rhetoric on nationalism became blunted and TR’s focus and effort to transfer the wealth that the government owned to the Bumiputras was curtailed and Mahathir slowly dismantled the New Economic Policy that was too dear to the heart of TR and the Malays.

Daim took the office of Finance Minister and his first task was to sack the Governor of Bank Negara Tan Sri Aziz Taha as he was not comfortable with strict laws and ethics of administrations.

Since then, Mahathir and Daim made decisions on ad-hoc basis and all Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) were not adhered to any longer. Administering the country was nothing more and nothing less like managing a simple Kubang Pasu Sepak Takraw Committee Members.

Mahathir enjoyed the splits in UMNO as he can only survive his politics if there were big crisis in the party. Mahathir couldn’t survive politically if there were unity among members and leaders under him.

Express gigantic projects became norms and all were decided on ad-hoc manner and he didn’t address all possible problems that may follow as consequences of his hasty decisions.

Mahathir was so focus on Mega Projects and he wanted it to be done fast and by doing so the country had to import capital goods in haste and that spiral the costs. This man didn’t bother the negative impact on our current account which in the end weakened our ringgit.

No one was supposed to criticize him then; whoever tried to think in dissimilarity with him would be taken to task.

He went head on with the basic and cardinal struggles of UMNO to create hundreds of thousand of millionaires but instead he went on negotiating Mega Jobs which were in only in the interest of 4 or 5 beneficiaries to be the billionaires.

The successes of economic management by TR in creating large number of middle class among the Malays are slowly depleting and when the economic down spiral sets in the middle class are the ones who suffer the most.

All costs of those mega projects were exorbitantly high and the rakyat had and still pay for the costs through their nose.

It will be very interesting to reminisce this abhorring history which is still new.

Mahathir himself in his blog wants everybody to read history as it is an important subject for the people to learn past mistakes; and this is just what I want to do; write a bit of history which I personally know without making even a bit of research.

Anyone is free to contest my opinion but what I am doing is nothing more than putting it on writing of what I see.

If anyone agrees with me, just recite for me Al-Fatihah if I am no more living then.

See you in few days for the following series.


Thanks……………………………………………………… Aspan Alias

21 comments:

Starmandala said...

My friend, you're performing a great service to the nation with your insider account of the Mahathir era - or should I say "error"? Thanks for this very insightful post ;-)

Anonymous said...

sori pan,

aku tak setuju dengan pandangam kau dalam hal ni,

walaubagaimanapun kalau kau takda aku akan tetap sedekahkan alfatihah sebagai seorang muslim

troubadour said...

Salam Mr Aspan,

Many thanks for a good insight into this subject. He is indeed an interesting creature. For a person who continues to push his agenda forward at a "half past six" stage, he is indeed a legend in his own right. If only he has a noble cause. His is but a distorted point of view.

I would also appreciate if you can use whatever little intelligence network that you have to write on possible moves before they happen. Prediction is never right and so is a forecast, said my lecturer but we can try. Please preempt their moves, especially this old man's move.

He said BN should contest Penanti but I think he is telling Najib secretly NOT to field a candidate! What say you?

Anonymous said...

I like it bro! Mahathir is just the way you described. He has no dignity politically....he is a crab

sheppard said...

It makes sense now, that i have felt, that now you wrote it. That old man, very clever.

sheppard said...

Look forward part 3.

Anonymous said...

abang memang betul lah...
saya penyokong semangat 46, TR benarlah seorang politik yang paling bersih!
Mahathir is just a snake...yes, a snake that has swallowed up the whole of malaysia...

abc said...

yeah u got it all right, right all the way from day one he used malay issue to enrich himself

flyer168 said...

A very holistic article on Mahathir's "Track Record", magnificient.

What about the "Final Checkmate" on Musa with the "memali" incident.

As Tun Musa once told me....

"Either way, I was a "Dead Duck", so I had to do what I thought best....

The rest is "History."

Everyone of them UMNO Leaders are “Squeezing” each other by the “Orbs/Jugulars”.

After what Agong had done for Incoming PM & DPM last week....

Now the “Anointed Adviser” have them both in his “Trap” with one son as Dy Minister of MITI & another Businessman son soon will be appointed as a “Senator” in due course (Semua APs bisa Di-ator!)....

He now has to complete his “Dream Team” with “Idris Jusoh” & his 40 thieves....

Creating another State Constitutional Crisis in Trengganu, to continue the Oil Royalty plunder Kau, Kau Pt 2!

Looks like it will spread to Kedah & Perlis also....

Next we have the revisit of the JB/Singapore Crooked Bridge issue bubbling up when this nation does not need & can ill afford to build it at this point in time....

The next will be the "Slotting In" of our ex FM Daim to complete our "Adviser's Dream Tag Team Twin"....

ALL together with his 2 sons he is now the “Taiko Adviser” to continue from where he left the last time....

Fat Mama’s 1st reprimand to Najib....

Bodoh....remove MB Mohd Nizar but forgot to remove Speaker Sivakumar!

Now 2nd reprimand....

Goblok....Listen to Mahyuddin to invite Mahathir to rejoin UMNO!

Now....even Mama cannot help you, Stupido!

There will definitely be “Fireworks”, so let us sit back & watch the Greatest show in Bolehland....

You go figure out....

Remember “What goes round, will come round to these Desperate UMNO Ketetuanan Beggars” - Past, Present & Future.

The “Opressors” will “FAIL” & God Almighty will ensure “Justice” will be done.

Do keep up your "Prayers" to God Almighty in your own way for "Sanity, Human Rights, Justice, Freedom, Equality & Peace to "Prevail" over "EVIL"

Devine Intervention works Wonders....Insha'Allah.

Unknown said...

He is a smart ass. It would be nice to get him to talk to students the politic of divide and rule.

Anonymous said...

My bro!!! Keep on writing on this emigrant, Mahathir. He is a real 'palat'.

Aspan Alias said...

Troubadour, You can forecast and forsee what Mahathir would like to see to happen.
He must see that what happen is what he wanted.
Najib is not his choice! His choice is Muhyiddin and he knows why.
Now I think he wnts Najib to fumble so that Muhyiddin will replace Najib.
On whether he wants BN to paricipate in Penanti by election, I cant comment as this is Najib's personal choice.
If BN stays away, than that is a real reflection of UMNO's and Najib's miscalculation of politics.
Some people told me that he doesn't want the people to revisit the Altantuya case and that is is real irritant to him.

Aspan Alias said...

flyer168, you know a lot and I think you should write and share views with me often.
We should meet.

Aspan Alias said...

Dear Antares,
You are welcomed to my blog and let us exchange views and facts on our politics as this is a very important issue for the people.

Anonymous said...

Mr Aspan, you did a right thing by writing a bit on historical sequence that led to this political happenings.
Not many people know about things these days.

Askar Pencen said...

Saya tahu apa yang sdr perkatakan tetapi saya tidak tahu untuk menulis.
Apa yang saudara katakan adalah benar. Segala yang berlaku hari ini bukannya terbentuk sejak 5 tahun yang lalu.
Keburukkan yang ada pada hari ini bermula lebih 20 tahun lalu.
Permainan nakal Mahathirlah yang menyebabkan UMNO kita hancur.
Syabas saudara.

flyer168 said...

Aspan Alias,

Thank you for your kind words.

Yes, I look forward to having a meeting & discussion with you soon.

Saya orang lama with exposure during our Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra, Bapak Merdeka/Malaya/Malaysia & his 1st Cabinet of TRUE HONOURABLE, ESTABLISHED, SINCERE & HONEST Malayan TUANS (Tun Cheng Lock, Tun Col. H.S.LEE, Tun Sambanthan, etc)....

Also in Singapore under LKY in the early,mid 60s....

Please check your email.

Cheers.

flyer168 said...

Aspan Alias,

Have you read De minimis's blog on the Constitution?

We have been enlightened by the "Sifu" with True Historical events, evidences & conclusion.

Cheers.

Aspan Alias said...

Sheppard, thnx bro for your attention towards my humble opinion.
I am delighted that there still a few who are listening to views which is not easily acceptable to materialistic political community.

Anonymous said...

i cant agree more than what you wrote Aspan

Anonymous said...

i cant agree more than what you wrote Aspan