Dr. M Abul Kashem Mozumder and Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque :
What a grand come back after a long layoff. In fact the builder of modern .Malaysia assumed the office as a symbol of responsibilities not as power . Now the people in this country can pin hope reposing trust on the newly elected incumbent as his appearance in the e scenario amounts to reincarnation of values that he nurtured. ‘When Malaysians woke up on May 10, the world looked and felt different. For the first time in years, many Malaysians feel a sense of optimism that was missing in their lives. For the past six decades, Malaysians have been living under the rule of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).’UMNO had won every election since 1955. In the May 9 general elections, Najib Razak, UMNO’s leader and prime minister, was not only confident, he was telling close aides that he was aiming for two-thirds of the seats in the 222-seat parliament. By the time the final vote was counted, UMNO had only 79 seats and lost power.’
We may assign the following reasons to the defeat of Najib “First, his personal brand had become synonymous with kleptocracy. He was alleged to have received close to US$1 billion from a Malaysian sovereign fund via complex international transactions. It did not help that Najib’s wife, Rosman Mansor, was widely regarded as a spendthrift with a passion for diamonds and designer bags.Second, Dr Mahathir Mohamad was no ordinary opponent. Mahathir was Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister, from 1981 to 2003, and had come out of retirement to fight Najib.Third, and perhaps most important, UMNO was simply seen as an organisation for political patronage, and a purveyor of racism and crony capitalism. It was no longer seen as a Malay nationalist party. In the past few decades, UMNO has been regarded as vehicle for making big money, government corruption and spreading hate towards the Chinese community in Malaysia.”
As reports said “The rural Malays, the mainstay of UMNO political power, could not stomach Najib’s toxic reputation as “Mr Kleptocrat”. They could see that under continued UMNO rule, their lives would be economically ruined. The GST brought in by the Najib administration was the last straw. Prices of basic necessities went up across the board despite Najib’s insistence that the GST would bring down prices.”There is tremendous goodwill towards Mahathir. Yes, he was dictatorial when he was prime minister , this time it will be different. Mahathir is 92, and it is obvious he is a transitional leader.He has said many times that once his jailed former deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, can get a royal pardon and a seat in parliament, he will hand over power to Anwar. Many Malaysians believe he will keep his word: after all, he cannot be going for re-election when he is 98.Mahathir will also be constrained by the opposition’s organisational structure. His party, Pribumi Bersatu, has the third-smallest number of MPs of the four parties in Pakatan Harapan (PH) (Alliance of Hope). He is not in a position to bully.”
Mahathir is a principled person now coming into ruling scenario as transitional leader. A transitional leader is a board- or executive-level individual brought in to tackle a corporate challenge with a defined purpose and direction. They are typically hired to lead a major transformation, such as a company restructuring, sale or turnaround, integration of an acquisition or the start-up of a new division.
The transformation will be measurable and will affect the company’s shape or its position. The role is one that calls for highly specialist, relatively rare board-level executives, arguably an alter ego for the chairman or chief executive, who are either recognised experts in their field, or who have multi-disciplinary expertise and multiple-industry experience. An early career in an investment banking or management consultancy advisory role is not unusual.
This is not the same as interim management. The ‘centre of gravity’ of this market is gap-filling, holiday/maternity cover, ‘holding the fort’, and completing project teams. Immediacy, more often than not, is the primary focus.
Typical interim candidates include long-term career interims; those ‘between jobs’ with an ambition to return to a permanent role; longer term ‘betweenies’, formerly known as independent consultants; and early senior retirees who no longer seek a permanent income, but wish to continue making a contribution
The people of Malaysia have crowned Mahathir despite the fact he is aged 92. Malaysia is now in dire straits. There is absolutely no plan to put him through due process of justice in regards to the malicious political machinations that he had orchestrated during his rule.
Some comments are worth mentioning :
He is old and cannot cling on to power for too long, and the coalition realizes that he could die anytime now, which makes this notion patently morbid and politically disturbing. Anyway, he could still co-opt the authority and canonize his son or anyone he likes to premiership. Remember, he was a crony capitalist who appointed based on interests instead of pure merit alone. His petulance in recent months at the negotiation table is a testament to this attitude.
He is arguably the best candidate to tip the rural constituencies in the opposition’s favor. Literally no one else could do this as well as he. Nonetheless, the fact that he is now willing to work with DAP has significantly created a trust deficit among rural Malays. So this theory will be tested in the coming General Election
I think the most glaring weakness of Tun M’s nomination as the new boss is that there
All Malaysians think about his return to politics It seems only through the systemic failure[6] of the monster of a system he had inadvertantly created did he realise the seriousness of his mistakes.
Some Malaysians will certainly be suffering from a serious case of cognitive dissonance
Dr. Mahathir would be the best person to identify and correct faults in the current system. But never again must Malaysians put their trust in an autocratic system where a single failure right at the top risk bringing the entire system down. Even in network security, it is a known fact that people is often the weakest link]. While a system with checks and balances[13] can be inefficient, discussions and disagreements may look like chaos, putting your trust in one human is pure insanity. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
(Dr. M Abul Kashem Mozumder is Pro-VC, BUP and Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque, is a retired professor of Chittagong University)
