LETTER | There has been a lot of discussion about who is the best candidate to be the next prime minister if Pakatan Harapan takes over Putrajaya.

Within the past few days, I have been receiving a whole barrage of short messages that have gone viral.

Some support Harapan chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad as the interim prime minister, while others oppose it strongly.

One of the best that I have read is summarised in an anonymous message:

“Now that Harapan is formed with major issues settled, let us all move on to work hard and plan smart to make the grand coalition really works. To me this 92-year-old, who operates like a 29-year-old, is simply a godsend. Let us all bury the past and focus on the future. Remember the proverbial ‘No point crying over spilled milk.’

“To err is human. And the man has not only apologised, but put in all he has to fight the tyrants. Giving a chance to Mahathir is also giving we Malaysians a chance to save the nation. Our beloved nation. We are not talking about who could be the best prime minister for the country here. We are talking about who is the most capable and suitable person to lead the charge against the tyrants in Putrajaya. Move on and move up.

This is a well-focused message. Allow me to share my humble opinion here. After my discussion with several people, I fully agree that those who still have personal vendetta against Mahathir are unable to move on; they have become like an old broken record.

If they cannot accept Mahathir as interim prime minister, they should not stop others from looking forward to a new Malaysia.

Same old strategies

There are also certain factions, with their own hidden agenda, who are obviously trying to influence the younger generation to seize power and in the process work alongside with BN to throw Harapan into disarray just before the next general election.

All this is too obvious, and I believe I know who these people trying to shift the younger generation from supporting Harapan and destroying whatever hope we have for change.

I personally do not see why Dr Mahathir cannot be the interim prime minister until de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is released from jail in June.

For all you know, situations can take a turn even before we could go to the voting booth. The moment that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak dissolves the parliament, he is technically no longer in charge.

His government is only a caretaker government. I wonder if someone can tell us whether his position will therefore be vulnerable to any criminal charges, say from the US Department of Justice.

Mahathir’s decision to offer himself to be the interim prime minister may also be a strategic move that only internally the Harapan leaders would know.

Maybe, after winning the election, Mahathir may decline the post, giving the excuses that he is now well physically to take on the task?

So, what’s the big row now about Mahathir being the interim prime minister? Stop counting the chickens before they hatch!

Just move on

The focus that rakyat and Harapan leaders should have is to first capture Putrajaya, and remove the people directly responsible for the 1MDB financial scandal.

The next thing is to focus on reforms and transformation that the country needs by putting the various institutions back in place so that the country can be put on the right footing again.

All these Mahathir has already promised to fulfil within his lifetime. Bear in mind that he is the engineer of Umno Baru. If I may put it, he is the one who created the cyborgs, let him be the Terminator 14.0.

The nation would be grateful to Mahathir for what he manages to do in the last few years of his life; otherwise, as I have said before, he would be the most despicable sly, old fox that this country has seen.

I believe I share the same sentiments of many of you and in particular I like to quote former Bar Council president, Ambiga Sreeneevasan:

“The country just has to move on. The opposition parties have the right to decide on the PM candidate taking into account the views of its members. They have spent too much time on this and now there is a decision, we must respect it and move forward. There are many issues to tackle and little time to do it. The nation comes first.”

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.