Former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad is trying to be King Canute a thousand years ago to stop the rise of the tide in the way he is trying to stem the new tide in Malaysian politics after the 13th General Elections – growing support from Malaysians regardless of race for an end to the politics of race, corruption and abuses of power and their replacement by the politics of the Malaysian Dream rising above race, corruption and cronyism.
It is most shocking and outrageous that after 22 years as Prime Minister and after fathering Vision 2020 and Bangsa Malaysia, Mahathir should return to his racist roots during and after the 13th General Elections to foment racial conflict and tensions.
His latest racist fulmination that the 13th General Election is proof that the Chinese in Malaysia are out to oust the political power of the Malays and to dominate Malaysian politics is totally outrageous, reckless and irresponsible, and most unbecoming and unworthy of a person who had been Prime Minister for 22 years – and worst of all, a person who fathered Vision 2020 and Bangsa Malaysia.
Mahathir was already at his racist worst during the 13th General Elections when he made the preposterous and baseless allegation that I was contesting in Gelang Patah to create a “racial confrontation” and that I was inciting the Chinese to hate the Malays.
There was not an ounce of truth in Mahathir’s allegations.
But what was most significant was that Mahathir’s allegations failed to make any impression on the voters, particularly the Malay voters, as I could not have won Gelang Patah with a majority of over 14,000 votes without the support of the Malay voters.
Now Mahathir has come out with an even more proposterous allegation that the Chinese in Malaysia are out to oust the political power of the Malays so as to dominate Malaysian politics!
Mahathir has become the greatest enemy of a multi-racial Malaysia.
Let me advise Mahathir to stop being an inveterate racist and learn to be a Malaysian. I would even remind him of the Bangsa Malaysia objectie of his Vision 2020. Has Mahathir completely repudiated his Vision 2020 and Bangsa Malaysia concept?
While I am completey outraged by Mahathir’s latest racist fulminations, I feel nontheless encouraged that he is speaking to a diminishing crowd, for the results of the 13th General Elections is the best proof that the young generation of Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans and Dayaks, have become more Malaysian-minded than Mahathir, and they are spearheading a new political wave to demand an end to the politics of race and corruption.
What they want is a new politics of a Malaysian Dream which could unite all Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region, in a common national purpose to build a new Malaysia where all Malaysians can hold their heads high as proud citizens of a Malaysian nation where there is freedom, justice, good governance, prosperity for all Malaysians where the politics of race is a nightmare of the past.
This is why I say Mahathir is trying to be King Canute a thousand years ago to command that the tide should not rise – in the same way as he is setting his face against the rising tide of the politics of a Malaysian Dream and an end to the politics of race.
[Media Conference Statement on arrival at the Kota Kinabalu Airport on Saturday, 8th June 2013 at 10am]