cakap cakap....Mahathir (Bahasa & English)

cakap cakap....Mahathir (English translation follows).

Kalau boleh dikatakan Perdana Menteri yang tiada kekurangan peribadi hanyalah Hussein Onn. Kita mungkin pernah dengar kekurangan Tunku. Mungkin juga Tun Razak. Tetapi kekurangan atau kelemahan diri mereka itu hanya memberi kesan kepada diri mereka sahaja atau paling besar kepada keluarga mereka sahaja. Saya tahu apa kegemaran Tun Razak…atau perkataan lebih sesuai ‘perlukan’…sedikit minuman keras pada masa tertentu untuk menenangkan dirinya dan sebagai mengurangkan tekanan penyakitnya. Masih ada beberapa orang yang masih hidup sekarang yang boleh mengakui perkara tersebut. Masih ada juga beberapa isu lain tapi persona umum Tun Razak tiada bandingan. Ya, beliau memperjuangkan agenda Melayu. Ya, beliau telah mengambil tindakan tertentu untuk mencapai matlamat tersebut… tetapi Tunku, Tun Razak dan Tun Hussein – mereka adalah pemimpin yang tidak menunjukkan rasa tamak, megah diri dan tipu daya.

Kemudian muncul Mahathir. Apa yang kita nampak dalam persona umumnya adalah seorang yang berkeyakinan tinggi dan ketua yang berkuasa. Tiada siapa boleh membuat keputusan untuknya. Walaupun timbalannya sendiri. Walaupun orang dalam UMNO sendiri. Mahathir kelihatan mampu untuk menempuhi dan mengatasi apapun jenis krisis, konflik dan pertembungan. Saya lihat sendiri tindakannya menjelajah seluruh negara untuk mendapatkan sokongan dan momentum untuk menyokong tindakannya untuk mengurangkan hak keistimewaan Sultan. Akhirnya dia berjaya. Tindakannya itu nampak kurang ajar namun dia tetap berjaya. Satu persatu dia menolak ke tepi Musa dan kemudiannya Anwar dengan senang hati. Malaysia ingin menganjurkan perlumbaan F1 Power Boat? Mahathir hanya perlu menelefon kroninya – sumbangan untuk itu terus sahaja diperolehi. Langkawi? Atas tindakan Mahathirlah Langkawi jadi seperti hari ini – dan yang menjadi acara utamanya ialah LIMA. Tiada masalah. Putrajaya, KLIA, KLCC…dan banyak lagi. Menakjubkan, jika itu Mahathir mahu, itu yang dia akan dapat.

Kemudian satu persatu timbul kisah yang lain. Mahathir memberikan MAS kepada Tajuddin yang langsung tiada pengalaman menguruskan syarikat penerbangan. Bakun diserahkan kepada Ting Pek Khing yang tiada pengalaman dalam pembinaan empangan. Hutang piutang PLUS berlambak. Petronas menjamin keluar syarikat perkapalan anak Mahathir dengan membayar RM1 bilion tunai! Kemudian satu billion lagi untuk menjamin keluar Tajuddin daripada MAS.

Tapi bukankah Mahathir mengarahkan semua Menteri memakai Perdana? Kita sendiri nampak Mahathir memakai Perdana! Bukankah Malaysia berjaya menempuhi krisis kewangan dunia dengan cemerlang? Bukankah kita sudah ada kereta kebangsaan sendiri? Lihatlah semua lebuhraya yang sudah terbina…Ya dan kita tak sudah akan perlu membayar tol. Kita juga ada Ops Lalang. Kita juga pernah ada Perwaja..lama kelamaan putar belit Mahathir mula tidak menjadi. Mahathir ada banyak idea namun kebanyakannya teruk!

Penswastaan yang diberikan kepada kroni-kroni Mahathir asyik memerlukan suntikan kewangan yang mengakibatkan negara kerugian berbilion-bilion. KWSP, Petronas..semua institusi kewangan milik negara secara sembunyi perlu mengeluarkan sumber kewangan mereka untuk ‘membantu’ kroni-kroni yang diberi projek oleh Mahathir tetapi kroni-kroni itu telah gagal menjayakannya. Kita dengar berita yang kerugian ini bukan bernilai jutaan tetapi mencecah billion…namun masih tiada siapa yang disabitkan atas tuduhan menyalahgunakan kewangan negara. Saya pernah lihat gambar Mahathir bersenang lenang atas kapal layar Ananda. Mahathir menunggang kuda. Mahathir membuat ini dan itu dan pada masa inilah kesangsian terhadap Mahathir mula kelihatan. Bisnes dan politik adalah rakan kongsi yang pelik namun ia membuatkan sesetengah individu menjadi sangat kaya.

Apabila Mahathir mengundur diri, perasaan lega sebahagian besar rakyat jelas kelihatan. Mahathir berkeyakinan yang Pak Lah tidak akan membangkitkan apa-apa perkara yang berlaku di zaman pentadbirannnya. Ternyata Mahathir silap. Sekarang kita telah pun tahu apa yang telah dilakukan oleh Mahathir di zamannya untuk membangun dan membina negara sebenarnya langsung tidak mengambil kira kepentingan rakyat. Tiada pertimbangan langsung terhadap keupayaan negara di masa akan datang untuk menanggung segala kerugian dan kegagalan besar yang berlaku akibat tindakan gelojoh Mahathir. Tiba-tiba sahaja kita berhadapan dengan masalah tersebut…dan seperti biasa rakyatlah yang terpaksa menanggung masalah itu akhirnya.

Bayangkan apa yang dapat dilakukan untuk negara kita dengan berbilion duit yang digunakan untuk menjamin keluar kesalahan Mahathir? Sepatutnya jika kita memberikan anak-anak dan kroni Mahathir sebilion seorang, jumlah itu masih berbaloi untuk kita belanjakan  untuk membuang mereka keluar daripada negara ini daripada membiarkan mereka mengosongkan kantung negara kita.

Semua orang mengatakan tentang penswastaan Malaysia. Tidak, yang lebih tepat ialah penswastaan Mahathir, sama sahaja seperti Mafia. Kalau anda di dalam keluarga yang sama, tak apa…bezanya dalam Mafia, ada had untuk kerugian anda…tapi dengan Mahathir ianya tidak sebegitu. Mafia pun tiada peluang untuk menghampiri duit berbilion ringgit seperti mana yang telah Mahathir berikan kepada kroni-kroninya… dan Mahathir ingat dia Bapa Pembangunan Malaysia? Huh! Cabaran kita sekarang ialah belajar daripada kesilapan Mahathir. Ianya kesalahan Mahathir tetapi kita masih perlu belajar daripadanya. Ini adalah supaya jangan kita biarkan ada lagi pemimpin akan datang menjadi seperti Mahathir.

In English:

About the only Prime Minister that can be said to be without any personal blemish would have been Hussein Onn. We know Tunku weaknesses. We know Tun Tun Razak’s too. But these blemishes or weaknesses in their life affected only themselves … or possibly at most their immediate Family. I know that Tun Razak enjoyed …or needed would be the more appropriate term....needed a few drops of liqueurs and liquors every now and then to calm his nerves and take away the pain of his illness. There are many who are still around today who will testify to that. There were also other issues but Tun Razak public persona is impeachable. Yes he had a Malay agenda. Yes he had done what he thought necessary to achieve those objectives ….but Tunku, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein – these were leaders for whom greed, arrogance and overt deceit were matters to be avoided like the plague. 

Then came Mahathir. What we saw of his public persona was one that exudes confidence and a take charge sort of a leader. Nobody crosses his path. Not even any of his deputies. Not even UMNO. He seem to be able to emerge from any crisis, any conflict any confrontation victorious. I watched as he went across the country drumming up support and momentum in his move to strip the Sultans of their seemingly invincible aura. He succeeded. His manuovering were crude but he succeeded. One by one he disposed of Musa and then Anwar with relish. Malaysia wanted to host the F1 Power Boat Race? He organized it with one phone calls to his cronies – and he came out with the money. Langkawi? He single handedly made Langkawi into what it is today –throw in LIMA as the icing on the cake. No problems. Putrajaya, KLIA, KLCC…..and the list goes on. Amazing stuff. What Mahathir wants he will make happen. 

And then the stories started coming out. He give MAS to Tajuddin who have had no experience in running an airline. Bakun to Ting Pek Khing who also had no experience building dams. PLUS was having massive debts problems. Petronas bailed out his son’s shipping company to the tune of RM1 billion CASH! Then another billion to bail Tajuddin out of MAS. 

But did’nt Mahathir insisted that all Ministers must use Perdana? We even see him in a Perdana! Did not Malaysia go through the Global Financial crisis with flying colors? Do we not have our own national car? Look at all the highways being built. ……..Yes but we did have to pay tolls on the never never. We did have Ops Lallang. We did have Perwaja. …and slowly the spin that Mahathir has put on his years of rule started to wear thin. Mahathir had many ideas but the problem is that most of them sucks! 

Privatization given to his cronies consistently required bailouts that cost the country billions. EPF, Petronas…all the Government controlled financial institution were quietly bleeding money to ‘reimburse’ cronies given projects by Mahathir but who have failed to make them viable. We hear people talk not in terms of millions but billions…and yet no one was held accountable for these massive abuse of Public funds. I saw picture of Mahathir shirtless on Ananda’s yacht. Mahathir horse riding. Mahathir this and Mahathir that and that was when the doubt started. Business and Politics makes strange bedfellows but makes some men very rich. 

When he left the sigh of relief from Malaysian was audible to everyone. He left confident that in Pak Lah he had somebody who would keep under wraps what had happened during his years in power. He was wrong. Now we know. We know that all that was done by Mahathir during his time in the name of progress’ development and Nation building was done with not much consideration for the needs of the people. There was no consideration for what the country will endure in the time to come to pay for these massive losses and failures that have been recklessly embarked upon by Mahathir. And suddenly we know we had a problem….and as always it is the rakyat that ultimately is left with the problem of paying for the bill. 

Just imagine what could be done for the country with the massive billions that have already been used to bail out all the follies of Mahathir? We should have just given his children and his cronies a billion each and it would still be worth every penny spend to rid ourselves of these vultures and criminals that have bleed our country dry. 

People talked about Malaysia incorporated. No it was more a Mahathir incorporated run on the same lines as the Mafia. If you are family you are a ok. …the only difference was even with the Mafia there was a limit to the amount of money they could lose…not with Mahathir. Not with Mahathir. Even the Mafia did not have access to the billions that Mahathir so generously gave to his cronies. …and he thinks he is the father of Development of Malaysia? Huh! Our challenge now is to learn from his mistakes. It was his mistakes not ours but we still have to learn from his mistakes. So that we will never allow within our midst a leader like him again.