Zaid Ibrahim, whose reputation as a politician is built partly on his strident criticism of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, recently suggested that the government appoint the former prime minister as Minister Mentor to help it deal with rising racial and religious tension.
He did not have his tongue in his cheek. In fact, he anticipated criticism for the suggestion, which he made in a blog posting.
Zaid paid tribute to Mahathir’s “strength” in matters other than “his treatment of the judiciary or his interpretation of the rule of law”.
It is obvious from the article that Zaid agrees with Mahathir that a “strong leader” is one who brooks no opposition to whatever he is set on doing—in other words, someone who thinks he is God or at least God’s gift to mankind.
He said Mahathir could help the Najib administration in the areas of education, restoring unity among the different racial groups and handling other sensitive issues such as religion.
Any reasonable observer of current affairs in Malaysia will agree that these are indeed important issues that perhaps need urgent attention. But Zaid must have blinkered himself to think that they can be handled wisely by someone who has shown himself to be contemptuous of one of the most necessary institutions of democracy, the judiciary.
It is precisely a person with a love for both democracy and justice that we need if we are looking for someone to deal with the issues that Zaid mentioned.
Let us take the issue of education.
Was it not during Mahathir’s rule that our universities started producing sub-standard graduates?
He needed university graduates to work under his modernisation programmes, but at the same time he could not have people enlightened enough to pose a threat to his rule.
Thus we had an education system that could churn out as many graduates as possible, but unable to ensure that it would produce citizens who would think critically about the world around them. In other words, we have been producing graduates who are not educated.
Education as business
It was also during Mahathir’s time that education became an avenue for profit-hungry business concerns and started losing its function as a tool for empowerment.
Education became a lucrative business and many politicians became partners or directors of private colleges to reap the bounty.
As for racial unity and religious tolerance, it is incredible that Zaid would suggest the patron of Perkasa himself as a person fit for the job of addressing them.
This is a man who has proven himself to be a master at divide-and-rule strategies to ensure his continued hold on power.
Has anyone forgotten how Mahathir played up the May 13 incident and the Indonesian race riots to the hilt during the 1999 general election to scare non-Malays into voting for Barisan Nasional after he sacked Anwar Ibrahim?
In defending his point, Zaid said Mahathir was a Malay ultra only before he became Prime Minister but was fair to all races in his policies.
That argument is reminiscent of one that a teacher once made in defending her decision to nominate errant students as prefects. She said they would know how to deal with errant students because they already knew all their tricks.
Essentially, Zaid is telling us: Forget Mahathir’s past and don’t worry about his beliefs or his sincerity. Just put him back in government so that he can get things done in his own way.
Yes, Malaysia does need a strong leader, but not strong in the sense that Mahathir and Zaid use the word. We need someone with a strong commitment to democratic values who would depend on those values to solve the problems facing our society.
It’s not an easy job and it’s not easy to find a person who can do it well. That is why not everyone can be a national leader.
