From P Ramasamy

It is understandable why Rafique Rashid Ali, Pejuang’s federal territory deputy division leader, sprang to the defence of Pejuang’s leader and twice former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Rafique took umbrage to the fact that I was a perennial pessimist when it came to Mahathir and that I should not have called Pejuang a mosquito party.

It does not take a pessimist or an optimist to comment about the contributions or non-contributions of Mahathir.

It is better to be a pessimist in pointing out the wrongs rather than an optimist in remaining silent to the wrongs.

The fact that the Chinese are doing well in business must be attributed to their hard work and resilience in the face of overt and covert discrimination that was introduced in the guise of the New Economic Policy.

The fact that they are doing well in business cannot be solely attributed to the role of leaders like Mahathir or others. Furthermore, the economic and commercial resilience of the Chinese does not mean that there is no discrimination towards them.

It would be an insult to the Chinese community to deny them the fruits of their labour, despite the envy and jealousy of extreme Malay nationalists.

The Forbes list of Malaysian millionaires and billionaires is an interesting example of how well non-Malays in general and the Chinese in particular have done in business and commercial undertakings.

However, not all those who are listed are genuine businessmen. Many are cronies of former prime ministers like Mahathir and others.

Using the Forbes list hardly negates my argument of extreme cronyism under Mahathir’s administration.

Rafique is right in pointing out that the DAP became close to Mahathir during Pakatan Harapan’s short-lived administration. Whether the relationship was one of symbiosis or parasitic needs to be flushed out.

The 22 months of Mahathir’s administration under PH was a costly one not only for PKR and Amanah but also for DAP. DAP has never been the same after the costly experiment with Mahathir. It has cast a permanent scar on the future performance of the party.

This is the reason why I have argued that PH in general and DAP in particular must exorcise the “ghost” of Mahathir for the purpose of political rehabilitation.

PH leaders must openly admit that it was a mistake to have made Mahathir the prime minister the second time around.

Pejuang might recognise the multi-racial character of the country by its allegiance to the Constitution. I am not disputing this at all.

But what I am asking is how Mahathir can provide leadership to a political party when he is the source of the mess the country is in today.

Of all the prime ministers, he was singularly responsible for racialising the country to the extent that healing the deep racial and religious divisions has become extremely difficult.

There is no need on the part of Rafique to make references to other prime ministers, especially the one involved in the mammoth financial scandal.

Let the legal process take its due course.

I might not agree with Rafique, but I will defend his right to blindly support Mahathir.

Again, I repeat, Mahathir might be the leader of Pejuang, but I don’t see a future for the party and its loyal adherents.

P Ramasamy is a Penang deputy chief minister.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.