The 3rd 'Successor'

A week ago TMI published Dr Mahathir apologises for choice of successors. TMI reported (relevant extracts):

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the country’s longest serving prime minister for 22 years, today apologised for the choice of his successors, saying that he didn't know any better then. "Manalah saya tahu waktu pilih, saya minta ampun, minta maaflah pada semua (How did I know when I made the choice, I am sorry and apologise to all)," he said. [...]

... Dr Mahathir also took a dig at his immediate successor, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, as well as current Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, without mentioning any names.

"We can only guess, when someone is known as 'Mr Clean', we choose lah, but once he entered the arena, he became dirty."

"So I tried to find a cleaner replacement, who knew, this new guy's idea (would be) 'cash is king' and if you give people money, they will like you.”

In a veiled attack at Najib, Dr Mahathir said: "But in giving money to people, we must have money. If don't have, can do business, but not if we are holding a position (in government), but stealing, can.”

His remarks drew laughter and applause from some 4,000 students, lecturers and the public.

Hadn't it been wonderful that even at 90-year old, Mahathir could still find the words to entertain 4000 students (a group who once hated him when he was PM) to an extent that they laughed and applauded at his politically-titillating jabs at both AAB and Najib?

What he had said was he found to his surprise 'Mr Clean' (AAB) became 'dirty' once he entered the arena (became PM). OK then, so what did Mahathir do on discovering AAB wasn't the 'successor' he had wanted?

In his own words, "So I tried to find a cleaner replacement .....".

The 'replacement' he sought for the ousted AAB has of course been Najib who had, he subsequently found to his shock again, engaged in 'stealing'.

Thus Mahathir apologized (with his usual sarcasm of course) for his choice of 'successors'.

Wait, don't bother me by asking me why Mahathir did not apologize for his many acts which hurt us, horrified us and disgusted us, like the dismissal of Lord President Salleh Abas, Op Lalang, using Bank Negara money to gamble on the Forex and various other lamentable acts and events.

I don't want to go into those right now as they have been dealt with endlessly by so many other bloggers, reporters, journalists (including foreign ones) and a host of websites and news portals. Perhaps in the future ... wakakaka.

What I want to do now is to study the English language, or specifically one English word, to wit, 'successor', wakakaka.

The good olde dictionary says 'successor' is a noun, and may be defined as:

• a person or thing that succeeds or follows. 
• a person who succeeds another in an office, position, or the like.

Have you got it yet, I mean what a 'successor' is?

Okay then, let me provide you with examples of what a 'successor' to (in our discussion, specifically) a PM would be:

• Tunku Abdul Rahman's successor was Razak
• Razak's successor was Hussein Onn
• Hussein Onn's successor was Mahathir
• Mahathir's successor was .....?

Wakakaka. It could have been Musa Hitam, or Ghafar Baba, or (wakakaka again) Anwar Ibrahim, ... but alas for everyone of them none succeeded Mahathir.

I have omitted Ku Li from the unsuccessful list even though I believe (from reading RPK's posts) that there was an agreement within the UMNO leadership for Ku Li to become deputy party president (and thus DPM) to Mahathir and thus his (wakakaka) 'successor'. Alas, that didn't materialise.

Well you know that eventually it was AAB. At least for AAB, he, unlike the aforementioned various illustrious UMNO leaders, did become Mahathir's successor ... well (wakakaka) ... for a short period.

And AAB in becoming Mahathir's successor would have met the definition of the meaning of 'successor' as defined by the dictionary, to wit, "a person who succeeds another in an office, position, or the like".

But, can you explain how Mahathir could come to view Najib as his 'successor'?

According to  Mahathir's own words, Najib was considered as a 'cleaner replacement' for a 'dirty' AAB.

It's something we can derive directly from Mahathir's declaration "So I tried to find a cleaner replacement .....".

But do you understand the import (implication, significance) of such an utterance by Mahathir?

Okay, to help clear up our confusion that's right now in severe turbulent vortex and giving us a humongous headache, in just thinking of what Mahathir had implied by a Freudian slip through his sarcastic pretend-apology for his 'successors', let's go back to the time when Mahathir decided to hand over his prime ministerial position to his (wakakaka) first 'successor', poor AAB.

His bete noire at that time (1998-1999) and the reason for his decision to 'retire' (note my quotation marks, wakakaka) was Anwar Ibrahim. Wikipedia said that in the 1999 general elections: UMNO lost 18 seats and two state governments as large numbers of Malay voters flocked to PAS and Keadilan, many in protest at the treatment of Anwar.

Mahathir has always been a very smart man, and I consider him as one of Malaysia's foremost intellectuals. He knew he had lost a huge chunk of Malay support because of Anwar Ibrahim, and had escaped losing the general election principally because the Chinese voters supported BN, thus coming to his rescue.

Ironically I suspect 'twas a support he didn't quite relish because he didn't want to be dependent on the Chinese, wakakaka. So in 2002 he announced dramatically, with much tears and lamentation, at an UMNO assembly that he wanted to quit, but only to be persuaded by some of his cabinet colleagues to withdraw his stated intention to retire.

Anyway, in October 2003 he 'handed over' the reins (and thus the PM-ship) to AAB.

You know, I suspect he didn't want to retire because a man like him must have felt he still had so much to do, for example, to achieve his Wawasan 2020, and of course (wakakaka) to fix up that f* annoying lil' red dot in the south, wakakaka.

I wonder whether he had felt at that time, with perhaps some regrets, that he had brought Mukhriz into heavy-metal politics at too late a stage in his prime ministerial career. Mukhriz began his political involvement seriously only in 2004 when he won election to the executive council of UMNO's youth wing, a year after daddy supposedly retired.

'... supposedly retired', wakakaka!

Thus I suspect Mahathir's retirement wasn't planned but brought into emergency activation when he assessed the likely impact of the 1999 GE on future elections for UMNO (and himself as PM). And thus too, was Mukhriz only brought into heavy-metal politics then.

Another of my suspicions (told you I've a very suspicious mind, wakakaka) would be that Mahathir hadn't really retired, at least unofficially, and that AAB to him was only a caretaker sort of PM, or at best still his 'deputy', whom he could continue to dictate to, perhaps not on everything in running the government, but certainly on his pet issues, for example, the crooked bridge.

We know that had been one cause of his very severe criticisms of AAB when our Pak Lah cancelled that project, one deemed by most to be his (Mahathir's) lateral comeuppance on the Singapore government.

But his hatred for AAB rose to a crescendo when KJ was seen not only as the 4th Floor Boys who were the real power behind AAB, but also an arrogant foe to his sons on some issues (I'm going to just leave it at that).

Perhaps he felt as the 'real' PM behind the political throne he had the right to get rid of a 'disobedient' (wakakaka) and uncooperative AAB and find a 'cleaner replacement'.

And that must have been how Najib became also his 'successor' rather than that of AAB.

And Najib as his 'successor' has failed to satisfy his 'expectations', though Najib tried to mollify him by making Mukhriz a deputy minister and at the same time did not appoint the UMNO Youth Chief as a minister. And the UMNO Youth Chief has been KJ, wakakaka. It's not rocket science to know the reason behind KJ's unprecedented non-appointment as a minister by the PM when all along every UMNO Youth Chief has always been appointed as one.

Then Najib thought he'd nominate Mukhriz as MB Kedah as another mollifying act, but I suspect the greater ire was ignited by the perception Najib didn't do enough to boost Mukhriz into one of UMNO VP positions, without which the UMNO leadership distance between Mukhriz and the PM position is way way way too far.

Aiyah, Ah Jib Gor, that's really unforgivable lah! You should have sacrificed your cousin Hisham for your own skin, wakakaka.

Najib must be removed ... and by the de facto PM or de facto Emperor of Malaysia!

But alas, as someone in Sungai Buloh would tell you, 'de facto' is one thing while 'de jure' is another, especially when the de jure person has direct and immediate access to party funds which he undoubtedly will use to his own betterment, wakakaka.
  

In the end, the 1MDB fiasco is just one of many excuses to remove Najib, while another one has been the Altantuyaa affair. Indeed, why weren't these raised before Mahathir's declaration"So I tried to find a cleaner replacement ....."?

If Mahathir succeeds, I wonder who would be his new 'cleaner placement' for Najib, to wit, his 3rd and penultimate 'successor', because I suppose we can make an intelligent guess as to who will be his final 'successor'.