Media statement by Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Monday, 18^th June 2012: 

Is Mahathir trying to make the revival of Mahathirism the secret Barisan Nasional agenda in next general election?

“Dr M: Najib must be firm”

“Reforms could lead to extremism, Dr M warns Najib”

“Dr M: Reforms could spark unrest”

These are three headlines on online news portals on the latest interview by former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad with foreign news agency, AFP.

Mahathir’s message is very clear.

He is fully opposed to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s whole spectrum of transformation programmes although these transformation programmes have been mostly talk and no action with even severe cases of backtracking in the past three years of Najib premiership – from 1Malaysia, New Economic Model, Economic Transformation Programme to Political Transformation Programme!

Warning that too much freedom risked stirring an ethnic hornet’s nest, Mahathir said:

"Now that we want to be liberal, what has happened is that now we are more race-conscious than before. Today people are accusing each other of being racist."

But Mahathir failed to tell the full story – that although he himself coined the concept of Bangsa Malaysia in Vision 2020 21 years ago in 1991, he had right from the beginning rubbished Najib’s 1Malaysia concept with its objective to create a Malaysia where every Malaysian would regard himself or herself as Malaysian first and race second.

Mahathir clearly backed Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin when the Deputy Prime Minister declared that he was “Malay first, Malaysian second” when challenged to declare his allegiance to Najib’s 1Malaysia concept.

If an independent and impartial study is made of Najib’s premiership in the past three years to find out who had caused the worst racial polarisation in the country at a time when “1Malaysia policy” was the signature policy slogan of the Prime Minister of the day, Mahathir and the organisations he gave his patronage like Perkasa will rank as the main causes.

The question Malaysians must ponder is whether Mahathir is trying to make the revival of Mahathirism the secret Barisan Nasional agenda in next general election?

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Ipoh Timor