SHAH ALAM (Oct 23): Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday claimed that the Malays seem to have lost their political power, with the predominantly-non-Malay Democratic Action Party (DAP) seen to be above current prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The centenarian, who was testifying in his RM150 million defamation suit against Anwar at the High Court here, described the present Malay parties as having lost their political power, as they, on their own, cannot form the government and have had to rely on other parties.
“The power of the Malays is reduced as they have to rely on non-Malay parties to be in power to form the government,” Mahathir said.
When asked during cross-examination by Anwar’s counsel, Razlan Hadri Zulkifli, on whether he (Mahathir) was referring to DAP, the two-time former prime minister replied “Yes”.
Razlan: What is the difference (in your second stint as PM) in 2018 when DAP formed part of the government?
Mahathir: At that time, DAP was below me (DAP duduk di bawah saya).
Razlan: What about now with Anwar?
Mahathir: When Anwar becomes PM, DAP is above him (Anwar) (Anwar jadi PM, DAP duduk atasnya).
Asked to explain further, Mahathir said that Anwar seems to accept DAP’s policy that this country is not a Malay land, but a multi-racial land.
When asked by Razlan further on the possibility that Anwar was saying this in a descriptive term, and the fact that Malaysia is multi-racial, Mahathir replied yes, that is the population.
One of the points that Mahathir had raised in his defamation suit, was that at a PKR party congress 2023, Anwar had alleged that a person who had been in power for 22 years, and secondly for 22 months, had raised the issue that Malays had lost their power in the present government, whereas that leader had allegedly amassed wealth for himself, his children, had abused his power, and transferred his wealth overseas.
Mahathir said Anwar was referring to him in describing the individual who was in power for 22 years during his first stint as PM between 1981 to 2003, while the 22 months referred to his second stint between 2018 and 2020.
Mahathir admits to role on forming more Malay parties
Earlier, Razlan had pointed out that during Mahathir’s first stint as the prime minister, there were two dominant Malay parties, namely Umno and PAS, which the veteran former lawmaker agreed with.
However, the lawyer said that in 1988, the Malays were split further when Parti Semangat 46 was formed due to Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Tun Musa Hitam contesting against Mahathir. Razlan further said that Mahathir played a pivotal role in forming Bersatu with Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in 2016.
To this, Mahathir responded by saying that the reason Bersatu was formed was due to Umno members feeling they had no opportunity to contest on what was happening in Umno then, with regards to then-prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the 1Malaysia Development Bhd debacle.
Then, Mahathir formed Parti Pejuang Malaysia, and he later joined Putra.
When Razlan pointed out that no Umno president — from Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra to Tun Hussein Onn — had led to a split of the Malays except himself (Mahathir), who had caused the division, the 100-year-old politician seemed to evade the question.
“This politics has nothing to do with my defamation suit. You have to go on the issues — that I enriched myself, that I enriched my children— not on political history,” Mahathir said.
Judicial Commissioner Datuk Donald Joseph Franklin subsequently intervened and asked Mahathir to answer Razlan’s questions, to which Mahathir admitted with a “Yes”.
Razlan then proceeded to ask further on the role Mahathir played to unite the Malays, and Mahathir said he had asked the Malays to unite.
No constitutional or changes in law but 3R
Razlan asked the former veteran lawmaker on his description that the Malays had lost their power, and whether was this done by Anwar and whether there was a change in the Federal Constitution or legislation passed in Parliament that reflected this.
Mahathir agreed that there was no such amendment to the Constitution or legislation, and also agreed with Anwar’s lawyer that the senior posts of inspector general of police, chief of the Armed Forces and chief secretary to the government are still held by the Malays.
However, Mahathir pointed to the issue of 3R (race, religion, and royalty) as raised by Anwar’s government, which he described as an introduction (to limiting) raising 3R issues, and this had reduced Malay powers.
When asked by Razlan again whether there is any legislation on this, Mahathir queried that if there were no law, then why did the police take action.
“If there is no law, then why do the police enforce it? There are many things not passed in Parliament, and yet they are enforced,” the centenarian claimed.
Razlan also showed that before the PKR party congress, Mahathir had made several allegations, including that Pakatan Harapan’s win (to form the government) was due to purported corruption, that Malays were being sidelined, and that Malay interests were not made a priority by Anwar’s government.
The lawyer pointed out that Mahathir had also issued a statement in March 4, 2023, saying that the Malays had lost political power, that they do not control economic power, that when Anwar was in office as PM for 100 days, there had not been any results shown, and that meritocracy is a danger to Malays and only benefitted non-Malays, and it was after he had issued those statements that Anwar had responded.
Mahathir agreed, when shown by Razlan that Anwar had made the statements at the PKR congress in reply to Mahathir’s allegations on the current government.
Proceedings ended on Thursday afternoon, with Mahathir quipping on whether there were any further questions. Razlan responded by saying that there would be more at the next session, to which the witty politician replied “if like this, I will live to be 200”.
Proceedings will resume next Wednesday (Oct 29).
Besides Razlan, Anwar was also represented by Ranjit Singh, while Mahathir was represented by Rafique Rashid Ali, Mior Nor Haidir Suhaimi and Nizam Bashir.
On Tuesday (Oct 22), Mahathir said that he had filed the suit as he felt that Anwar’s statement on the matter was damaging to him as it was said by a sitting prime minister, resulting in ridicule from netizens, with this affecting his reputation as a statesman.