YOURSAY | ‘You tried to put a spoke in the wheel in the process, hoping to derail it…’

Dr M: I arranged for Anwar's pardon, but he didn't support me

Kim Quek: No, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, you didn’t get PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim pardoned and released. On the contrary, you tried to put a spoke in the wheel in the process, hoping to derail it, as apparent from the following sequence of events.

On May 14, 2018, you said the process of pardon “will take some time as we need to adhere to the rules”. However, the palace issued a statement on the same day that the Agong was satisfied with the procedure and that the Pardons Board would meet the next day, May 15.

It was on the Agong’s insistence to have the pardon procedure completed before the start of the Ramadan month (starting on May 17) that the meeting was finally agreed on May 16.

Significantly, it was not you Mahathir, but Anwar’s family who submitted the petition for pardon – on grounds of the “miscarriage of justice”.

Capo: Mahathir, Anwar's royal pardon was the top of Pakatan Harapan’s promises. The electorate voted overwhelmingly for Harapan based on this premise and made you the prime minister.

As such, you were required to work with the Pardon's Board to secure Anwar's freedom. What you did not expect was when the Agong pardoned Anwar based on the premise of miscarriage of justice from 1998-2018. That means all the charges against Anwar were trumped-up and politically motivated.

If you had honoured your own written and spoken word to hand over the premiership baton to Anwar, like then PKR president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail honoured hers, today you would be our hero, not a zero.

You stole our hard-fought mandate by toppling a legitimately elected government.

GreenHamster8043: Mahathir, so now what? Go see the Agong and ask for Anwar to be sent back to prison? You are the pot calling the kettle black. You have done enormous damage to the country.

Since 1981, Malaysia has remained stagnant in so many fields including education, economic development, poverty eradication, to name a few. Malays are still poor but Umno cronies are filthy rich. You call this success?

Racial and religious polarisation is even greater. Tell us what have you achieved for this country? We have lost two generations worth of advancement, all because of you and your selfish policies.

Justice Now: Anwar had to mortgage his house for election expenses. If he had such fabulously rich cronies, he would not have done that.

You purposely mention Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to suggest that Zahid is his crony and he is now supporting Anwar to become the next PM. What a sly and wicked psychological attack.

If Anwar wanted to unseat you, you would have been humiliated. His mistake was he took pity on you and respected you as an elder, but you abused the full power of a nation to destroy him. He survived though.

You supported his pardon because you would be rejected if you didn't - you only had 13 seats. Please don't give yourself any credit.

Karma: Indeed, Mahathir was the one that kept breaking the promise to hand over the PM post to Anwar. He kept saying Anwar did not have support from MPs. Mahathir should have been the one to have helped Anwar to get that support.

Even the day before the Sheraton Move, Anwar said that Mahathir was allowed to freely set a date to hand over the post. That's the patience and charisma of Anwar.

YellowMarlin8834: Mahathir, on this matter, you have lost my respect. Whatever grievances you and Anwar have, it's not the upmost important thing right now. If you and Anwar really care for the rakyat, you shouldn't be saying this today.

Ponder on the MPs who chose to be with you, except your own son, such as Maszlee Malik. They could have chosen an easier path.

The only truth is that you have betrayed all Malaysians who voted for Harapan. We wanted you to be the PM for two years after which you were supposed to pass the baton to Anwar. Why didn't you keep your promise to the rakyat?

Has your refusal to let Anwar be the PM superseded your promise to us? This is definitely not the quality of a statesperson.

As for Anwar, I really don't know how you got your numbers. If it includes Zahid and any tainted Umno members, I don't think DAP would agree to this sort of arrangement. Biar putih tulang, jangan putih mata (death before dishonour).

I assume many of us are very delusional at the attitude of both of you. Please, for the last time, iron out any differences and together with Warisan and any other parties, kick out Perikatan Nasional (PN), Umno and PAS for good.

MS: What Mahathir seems to be saying about Anwar now may well be true - just as it was when he visited the latter during his confinement in a prison ward before the 14th general election and each time the two were seen photographed together between May 2018 and 2019.

The fact remains though that almost everything that is wrong with the country today may be traced back to the two of them, whose unpardonable reign of bluff and bluster sowed the seeds for racial and religious bigotry manifested by the machinations of the National Civics Bureau (BTN) and the Islamic Development Department (Jakim), and later by every other agency funded by taxpayers.

Between the two, Mahathir ensured the country will never ever recover its once promising future permanently dimmed and whatever remains of its potential reduced to a flicker.

So, go on and moan - not for squandering all the chances you, Mahathir, had to build a great country but for your inability to do what your nemesis former Singapore leader Lee Kuan Yew did with so much panache.

The Wakandan: The take-home revelation from this (Mahathir) disclosure is that corruption was a government orchestration during his administration. That Anwar was able to make a crony very rich, if true, was because it was the government policy at that time - to make Malays millionaires.

Who were those Malays? They were those who were lucky enough to be their leader's choice. In turn, these government-made artificial millionaires purportedly financed BN, specifically Umno. And this practice spilled down the line into other BN component parties as well.

Of course, at the same time, the same leaders would choose not only their cronies but their own family members too, because that is human nature to want their children to get rich.

That is why we see many politicians, the higher they are, the richer beyond description they are. They are like foxes guarding the barns who take the chickens as the spoils for themselves.

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