AUGUST 29 — Over 20 years ago, I was on stage with Harun Hashim. I was there just to assist and he was already retired. He died a year later.
But I had unbelievable admiration for the High court judge who ruled Umno illegal, 15 years earlier in 1987. The country’s founding party was closed down by a court verdict.
A poignant flashback, as this week, another court witnesses Umno presidents — past and present — in a defamation suit.
Mahathir Mohamad accuses Zahid Hamidi of sabotaging his late political career, not the least causing his colossal defeat in the 2022 General Election, due to painting him as an ethnic Indian and not a Malay.
Zahid was so successful in his “deliveries”, it destroyed Mahathir’s chances in the Langkawi parliamentary election, according to the man inching to his centenary.
What a case, what comedy gold.
Mahathir testified this week that he has Indian blood but that he is Malay.
To those unacquainted, Umno claims that race is a legal definition, not a biological one — science to them can be fixed by party discipline. One can wholly be Malay by fulfilling conditions in Article 160 in the Federal Constitution. Be Muslim and act Malay, you are Malay.
This is exactly why Mahathir is pissed. How can Zahid continue to question his genuine Malay DNA when the Constitution already deems him completely Malay? How dare he!
Well, there is common sense.
When two elements are mixed, even if the composition of one element is lower, it does not dispose of the presence of the said element in the mix.
A childhood drink from my youth may shed some light.
Sunquick Orange Cordial is what my dad used to send me out to buy at the store if we had a visitor. RM2.50, great value. Pour one part concentrate and four parts cold water, a nice refreshing drink. But in the legal reality I live in, both the concentrate and water, now an orange drink, is only orange concentrate. Confused?
Because anything mixed with Sunquick Orange concentrate becomes only Sunquick Orange concentrate. We all have to pretend that the water is not there. In fact, the water pretends it’s not water anymore. Water works hard to look, think and act like pure concentrate and deny any who say otherwise.
Still confused? Tough, then.
Back to mixed up Mahathir.
He cannot recollect when the Indian part or how much of the Indian part plays in his genealogy. His father may have links to Indian Muslims in Penang, which is next to Kedah where he lived, or his great-great grandfather or such came from India. Either way, he cannot tell.
In an interview years ago, he said he had only a spoonful of Indian in him.
The average human has about five litres of blood, a spoonful is not charitable to say even if the Indian part is detestable.
Anyhow, Mahathir should take a DNA test, and put Zahid in his place! After all, when Zahid’s dad Raden Hamidi Abdul Fatah entered Malaya from Java in 1932, Mahathir was already seven years old. It may have been a further 70 years back from the 1930s his forefathers emerged and settled in Kedah. Where does newcomer Zahid get the gumption to question him, Mahathir must be thinking!?
The DNA will display incontrovertible proof Mahathir has barely a spoonful, probably less than a teaspoon of Indian in him.
Mahathir lost because his version of truth won
Perhaps Mahathir should thank Zahid, not sue him.
Consider the following.
In 1981, Langkawi was a complete backwater. Less than a per cent of Malaysians had ever travelled there. Its only claim to fame, the Mahsuri legend. Of how false witnesses against a chaste wife led to her execution which cursed the island for seven generations.
Mahathir became prime minister that July.
He transformed Langkawi. Petro-dollars were pumped into the island and the ferries increased from Kedah and Perlis, and soon after an international airport. Direct flights from London and elsewhere. Resort after resort. An international convention centre with its centrepiece event LIMA (Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition).
Duty-free status drove local holiday makers there. Cheap cars and alcohol. Beach-bums sold banana boat rides in the evening and a good time in the clubs in the evening.
Whether the seven generations of cursedness ended or Mahathir’s blind ambition to turn Kedah’s island into a paradise overwhelmed history and culture, the answer is academic.
That there is no Mahathir statue in Kuah is what should shock everyday Malaysians.
Which is why it felt normal for Mahathir to opt for Langkawi as the seat to contest at the 2018 General Election. Which of Langkawi’s Malays — 90 per cent of the constituency — were not thankful to Mahathir?
He won and became prime minister again.
He let his government collapse in 2020 because he was convinced it was not Malay enough.
He lost Bersatu’s leadership but created Pejuang to offer a more puritanical Malay product.
Mahathir contested in Langkawi again in 2022 but this time despite him being the beating heart of the island, the people refused to support him. In fact, Mahathir lost his deposit — all Pejuang candidates lost their deposits.
The people of Langkawi forgot about Mahathir’s singular contributions over three decades. Langkawi would not even be populated enough to be a parliamentary seat if not for Mahathir.
They did not support him because the Perikatan Nasional (PN) candidate they felt was a more Malay candidate, and to a degree affected by Zahid’s taunts.
The disciples of Mahathir in all the parties have reduced all questions to one single litmus test, is it Malay enough?
In Mahathir’s case, in Langkawi, to those voters it mattered less what any constructive contribution was, they chose to limit their thinking to the race dimension. After all, the only prerequisite condition is to champion Malay-ness even if this means to ignore all other qualities.
So, Langkawi dismissed reason and held aloft only race, not the past.
Does that not mean in a roundabout way, Mahathir has won? Malays have tuned out all other considerations, well at least in Kedah.
They will abandon unnecessary thoughts about economy, FDIs and management and direct their attention only to the race credentials of candidates. Mahathir should beam with pride.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
