Despite being 97 years old and recently suffering from a health scare, two-time former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has voiced his intentions to contest for the upcoming elections again.
He made the announcement during an 11 October press conference, thus ending months of speculation about whether he would retire, reported Nikkei Asia.
Dr Mahathir claimed that it will be his last electoral campaign, but no one can say for certain.
In any case, if there’s a Guinness World Record for longest serving politician or oldest elected MP, Dr Mahathir is definitely claiming the prize.
Mahathir’s Long History
Over the course of his political career, Dr Mahathir has been through the high and the lows.
He was present during the 1988 Malaysian constitutional crisis which resulted in the disbandment of the original United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).
Immediately after, Dr Mahathir created UMNO Baru (New UMNO) with his own faction, which is also the current UMNO that we know in present day.
He tided through the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. He served as Prime Minister for 22 years, before stepping down in 2003.
He resigned from UMNO twice—first in 2008 when UMNO lost its two-third majority in the elections, then in 2016 where he cited that the current UMNO was just “Najib’s party”.
In the 2018 General Election, he joined the Pakatan Harapan (PH), otherwise known as the Alliance of Hope, which toppled UMNO’s 63-year reign as the dominant ruling party in the parliament.
As the Chairman of the Pakatan Harapan, he became Malaysia’s premier for the second time, as the country’s eighth Prime Minister.
However, PH’s parliament majority was whittled down in less than two years by its opposition, thus triggering the 2020-2022 Constitutional Crisis, which leads us to the current four-party composition of the Malaysian government, with former defence minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob acting as the Prime Minister.
You can watch this video to know more about what happened:
The four parties in the parliament are: Barisan Nasional (comprising UMNO and Bersatu), Perikatan Nasional, Pakatan Harapan and Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA).
Running Once More
Dr Mahathir will be defending his seat in Langkawi, but his political party–Pejuang–has not put him forward as a candidate for Prime Minister.
His newest affiliation is loosely associated with Gerakan Tanah Air, who will be contesting 120 seats at least.
However, the coalition has not been officially registered yet.
The reason why they have to determine a prime minister—who is usually the leader of the coalition as well—is because they find it unnecessary at the current moment.
“We didn’t decide on who will be prime minister because the candidate for that is relevant only if we win. If we lose, it’s irrelevant,” said Dr Mahathir in an interview with CNA.
That being said, his reason for contesting in the 15th General Elections (GE15) is the same as before: he wants to stop UMNO from gaining control over Malaysia again.
In his press conference, the elder statesman claimed that if UMNO and its Barisan Nasional coalition won, they would be able to secure a pardon for former prime minister Najib Razak, and that UMNO President Ahmad Zahid Hamid will also be spared from his graft-related charges.
Najib is currently serving his 12-year jail sentence for his involvement in the 1MDB scandal. His charges include abuse of power, criminal breach of trust, and money laundering. He still has four more trials.
Zahid faces a total of 47 charges for criminal breach of trust, corruption, and money laundering.
You can also watch this video to understand why Malaysia is having its elections now:
Working With Anwar Ibrahim
Although Dr Mahathir’s participation in GE15 has been confirmed, his cooperation with Anwar Ibrahim is not.
When asked about this, Dr Mahathir said that he will be leaving the decision up to Anwar himself.
Despite that, Dr Mahathir seems to be throwing some shade at Anwar when he said that his political party’s candidates have to be “clean” and they must be free of scandals and misdeeds.
Additionally, he said the candidates must possess the correct morals, adhere to the rules of law, and respect the system of democracy.
Or maybe he’s just taking potshots at UMNO, who knows.
It should be noted that Anwar was jailed in 1998 on corruption charges and accused of sodomy, which is illegal in Malaysia. This was shortly after the 1997 Financial Crisis, whereby Anwar was the deputy prime minister to then-Prime Minster Mahathir.
The two had a falling out during that time period as they disagreed on how they should deal with the effects of the financial crisis. It has been theorised that Mahathir had a hand in destroying Anwar’s reputation and putting him into jail.
(Even if the allegations aren’t true, bad blood undoubtedly exists between the two.)
Anwar was released from jail in 2004, but he was jailed for sodomy again in 2015, under Najib’s administration.
He was eventually pardoned and released in 2018, a week after Pakatan Harapan won the 2018 General Election.
Given all the history that stands between them…long-term cooperation seems unlikely.
After all, Anwar was supposed to succeed Mahathir after he stepped down from Prime Minister the second time, but that eventually did not materialise.
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Featured Image: Facebook (Parti Pejuang Tanahair)
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