Mahathirudan

Rafique took umbrage at the fact that I was a perennial pessimist when it came to Mahathir and that I should not have called a 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 wrongs rather than an optimist in remaining silent about 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 the Chinese 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 their fruits of 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 Chinese in particular have done in business and commercial undertakings.

However, not all those who are listed are genuine businesspersons. 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.

Never the same after Mahathir

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 Harapan was a costly one not only for PKR, Amanah but also for DAP.