Prime Minister Slayer? Mahathir's Last Fight | Insight | Full Episode

he's been dubbed a prime minister slayer former malaysian prime minister dr mahathir mohammad attempted to remove malaysia's first prime minister thunku abdulrahman he also played a pivotal role in deposing two prime ministers in a row he's become an expert in pulling down prime ministers he pulled down to go up to rahman he also pulled down hussein he pulled down the dollar widow he pulled down the najib no they brought themselves down if they haven't done these wrong things they will still be there and now dr mahathir is hell bent on bringing down the perikata national government of prime minister mohidin yasin he wants not to be challenged so until today you can see he doesn't like to be challenged except by himself but at 95 does he really have what it takes to wage another bruising political battle and come out on top with all due respect i think the train has left the station photon [Music] on may 28 2020 former malaysian prime minister dr mahate muhammad and four other members of parliament were sacked from a malay-centric party which he co-founded party pribumi versatu malaysia the decision was made after he and his group of mps showed support for the opposition by sitting on the opposition bench during the may 18 parliamentary session but instead of retreating from the political scene dr mahathir decided to stay on and is now gearing up for another battle [Music] he launched a new malay base party pati pajuang tana or fighters of the nation party on august 12 2020 to take on muhiranyasin's government it's not my choice the thing is that i i realize i'm getting old but people come to see me asking me to help you be very selfish for me to say no i i cannot i want to rest since i can still function i have to respond to the appeal people that i should still be involved the question is how long can he stay the course and fight may 10 2018 it's a historic moment for malaysia and the opposition coalition pakitan harapan for the first time in over six decades the ruling coalition barisan nasana was voted out of power in a fiercely contested 14th general election one dominant factor which led to the historic defeat was the disappearance of some 4.5 billion u.s dollars from the debt-laden and scandal-plagued state investment fund 1mdb linked to former prime minister najib razak he borrowed 42 billion i thought that he was going to be invested like sovereign wealth but later on i read the papers that he had lost the money he had invested in this some arab company and all that and then they begin to report that the money has been lost and all that at that stage i lost my faith in him i thought that he shouldn't be doing this of course later on there were accusations that he stole the money big amount dr mahathya and his newly formed brazatu party forged an alliance with his former political nemeses anway ibrahim from pkr lim iguan from dap and amana a splinter party of the islamic party pass he then launched a highly spirited campaign to bring down mr najib and the bharasan national government when it was finally announced that dr mahade will be joining would be joining hands with the opposition to fight the najib administration it was not an easy talk because we had to face our supporters and a lot of people think that you know you guys really have no other better people you are bringing back a retiree to lead the battle but despite all those talks i think malaysians reach a stage of desperation and anger uh and i think they were just fed up uh in 2018. that was how dr mahadev joined hands with the opposition in 2018 and came back together with us to fight the najib administration alone nobody can beat egypt he was very powerful and he was he had tons of money so no way we could fight against him but we campaigned together on all the opposition parties and as you know in the 14th general election against all expectations najib loss a heightened sense of euphoria that swept over malaysia following the victory of pakitan harapan was short-lived the government only lost it for two years its popularity was beginning to wane due to public dissatisfaction over unfulfilled election promises a 33 year old creative consultant jana rizal feels that the fall of pakitan harapan had more to do with unrealistic expectations among malaysian voters as well as an inexperienced government i think perhaps the mistake was that people were expecting too much in such a short amount of time so to expect that all these fundamental changes could have been done in the span of what a year or so to me was very unrealistic on the part of the right yet perhaps this is really like the first time we've ever had a real change in the federal government before so yeah i think it required of them an immense learning curve and of course there were mistakes made um and the very fact that i think for much of pakita and harappan it was more of cobbling together a coalition just to bring najib down and that was always the objective right but how exactly do you work together necessarily has that actually been sorted out i don't think that was really the case the pakitan harapan government was also losing malay support very rapidly due to concerns over the perceived erosion of malay rights and privileges a new alliance made up of pass umno versatu and eleven members aligned to pkr's former deputy president asman ali seized an opportunity to topple the pakitan-harapan government on sunday february 23rd 2020 brazatu held a six-hour long meeting top of the agenda was an attempt to convince the then prime minister to leave the pakistan coalition and form a government which would include former rivals amno and pass elite audio recording of a voice that sounded like that of mr munin can be heard asking supreme council members to give dr mahathir the mandate to pull bersatu out of pakistan yes despite it their best efforts they were not able to convince dr mahathir to leave the ruling coalition and work with a graft tainted party which was rejected by voters two years ago at sheraton hotel we had a gathering to celebrate the formation of their opposition coalition i was not there and then of course when they leave pakita narapan pakatan harapan collapsed that means that i lost my job also because i was prime minister of pakistan from pakistan so i had to step down i was no longer a prime minister and then they wanted me to be the prime minister for their coalition i i said no i will never have anything to do with najib the move is actually to give a support to mahade but they misread mahaday [Music] when they assume that mahadev would agree but when mahadeh stood firm and said no i'm not prepared to work with those uh tenth leaders from amnon for example you know najib zahid thank you you know and many others so they were caught by surprise you know then when mahadev said no he said that he's not prepared to work with those guys then only muhidin saw it as an opportunity on march 1st 2020 muhiranyasen was sworn in as malaysia's eighth prime minister after he commanded the majority to form a new government known as pericata national defeated and outmaneuvered dr mahathir however expressed his disappointment in the man he claimed had been plotting to topple pakitan harapan government for a long time i mean we have to be honest because we campaign on the basis of getting rid of nanjing that was why people supported us they supported us because they want najib to go and we were fighting against ranchi now you go and join najib and make him the winner when against the wishes of the people i don't know what you want to call that but to me it is treachery the stage is now set for a grueling battle between dr mahathya and his one time ally turned political nemesis mohitan yasin will he succeed this time [Music] dr mahate muhammad's long and illustrious political career began in 1964 when he was elected as a member of parliament in his home state of qadhafi but in 1969 he lost his seat and was expelled from the party amno after falling out with the first prime minister of malaysia tunkul abdulrahman dr mahathir was persuaded to return to the party during the premiership of abdul razak hussein he then rose through the ranks and became minister of education mr razak's successor hussein on later picked dr mahathya as his deputy in 1976 before handing over the premiership to him on july 16 1981 as a prime minister dr mahathir actively pursued policies of privatization of government enterprises economic modernization and heavy industrialization but the policies proved unpopular with some of his peers a real challenge to his leadership came during the 1987 amno party elections his challenger for the top post was tinku rizzali he was then the international trade and industry minister people were very unlucky they were very unhappy with his privatization policies and many other policies which tended to lean towards creation of crony capitalism and and people were fearing that this was going to bring additional costs to to their to their to their life and uh and because of that uh the people at a grassroot level were very very unsure and unhappy and uh as a result they were nominating uh apart from mahathir others as well one of the prominent people dominated was naoton musahitam to fight dr mahadev for the president board i came in later and i thought i am giving a choice to the membership of amnon what is interesting is that he and musa were rivals i wanted to become my deputy president of the party but musa somehow rather persuaded to kurzali that he they should contest against me to kusari to be the president and musa will be the deputy president this is strange because they were rivals but that was a proposal by musa and razali was very keen to contest against me for the presidency of the party the hard fought election ended with a razor thin victory for dr mahathir he won 761 of the votes against mr tenku rizzali's 718 a difference of only 43 votes [Music] the next challenge to dr mahathir's leadership came 10 years later this time it was from a former firebrand islamic youth leader anwar ibrahim mr anwar's rise in umno was nothing short of meteoric in 1991 he was appointed minister of finance a year later he became dr mahathir's deputy but their relationship reached a breaking point in 1997 due to differences over how to handle the asian financial crisis dr mahate also felt that he had to fend off the advance of his ambitious protege i didn't expect him to go against me because i helped him rise in the party despite opposition from many members of the party but i think he felt that i was there too long and he decided to expedite my departure i felt very hurt about this because i had helped him to reach that high level just one step more to become prime minister despite opposition from many leaders in the party but when he did this i felt that eventually he would contest against me that's all right because i have contested against razali i'm willing to contest against anyone but in the meantime there was this police report about his misbehavior i had to consult the heads of all the amno division in the states and in the end the supreme council decided that he should be expelled from the party malaysia's side deputy prime minister weeks later mr anwar was charged with corruption for allegedly interfering with police investigation into his sodomy case in april 1999 the high court sentenced mr anwar to six years imprisonment for corruption and sodomy till today mr anwar still maintains these were trumped up charges aimed at ending his political career i don't know whether it is trumped up charges against someone like anwa but i have a sneaky suspicion that mahadee didn't want to give up his his job as prime minister and it is anwar who thought that he could mount a campaign against bahadi all these charges were brought against anwar using the law that was in existence at that time to really finish off anwar in this in this round because anua had an easy ride he was able to get rid of all his adversaries at the earlier stages but when he faced mahade then of course mahadi was ready i think because he didn't want to be pushed off easily and he wants not to be challenged so until today you can see he doesn't like to be challenged except by himself and you can see when another brain becomes too powerful he has to get another bribe out of the way for the next four years dr mahathir held on to the post unchallenged and in june 2002 he finally announced his decision to step down after more than two decades at the helm in october 2003 he passed the baton to abdullah ahmad badawi but only to force his departure a few years later abdullah took over and i thought that he would carry on the work and the policies that has been laid out unfortunately the moment he took over he cancelled projects that were agreed between us the first thing abnormal that we did was to stop his crooked bridge to singapore he stopped many things and that's not happy to him mahdi doesn't like it mahdi wants a prime minister who can follow him he's always like that he has got this burning ambition or burning desire that he must be in the pilot ship in the pilot seat because he thinks nobody else can do better than him after he successfully forced the resignation of abdullah badawi dr mahathir returned to active politics yet again this time to boot out what he described as the kleptocratic government of prime minister najib razak who was linked to the multi-billion dollar one ndb scandal i noticed that he was spending a lot of money to win support for himself i told him it's not necessary to spend money all you need to do is to go down and meet people talk to them shake their hands and they will support you because that was my experience i didn't spend money i never had money anyway so i advised him but his reply to me shocked me he said cash is king that is an admission that you believe in corruption in giving money to people to win support dr mahathya went on a barrage of verbal assault against mr najib for his failure to give convincing answers on the one mdb affair after failing to force mr najib to resign dr mahathya then formed a new malay-based party for satu with another amno veteran yasin to take on the mighty barasar national coalition [Music] their efforts finally paid off together with dap and amana they managed to create history the victory of pakitan harapan in the 2018 election ended 61 years of bharasan national's unbroken rule it also forced the downfall of najib raza from office but the electric moment following the victory of the reform-oriented government of pakitan harapan did not last long pakitan harapan soon collapsed under the weight of internal rivalries dr mahathir was ousted replaced by his one-time ally muhidun yasin who broke ranks with pakitan harapan to forge an alliance with former political foes amno pass and defectors from bersatu calling themselves pericata national for those in pakitan harapan it was also a betrayal of the trust and a reflection of some of those differences within pakitan harapan so for example when muhir nyasen or asman ali key leaders in pakitan harapan now formed a new coalition this of course created a lot of resentments among the people that they had left behind was it expected i think for many people it was the talk of a new government forming had been going on for months the divisions were were clear and i think that uh many in pakistan harappan were in denial that this would happen but just how strong is parikatta national's government under prime minister mohidan yasin will of factionalism and inter-party rivalry between its main component parties spell trouble for the alliance and will the position of prime minister mohiddin be secure [Music] the x has finally fallen on former prime minister najib raza on july 28 2020 mr najib was found guilty of all seven charges of abuse of power breach of trust and money laundering relating to the one mdb scandal he was sentenced to 12 years in jail and fined 50 million u.s dollars this is the first time in the nation's history that a former prime minister was convicted of a crime well we think we are vindicated because we accuse him of misappropriating government funds of bribery corruption or money laundering like buying a property in america that's in an attempt to hide the money that you have stolen he signs check and yeah he says he doesn't know where the money was coming from mr najib's guilty verdict in the 1mdb trial appears to have strengthened the position of prime minister muhir nyasin who has made the fight against corruption a top priority of his administration he even ruled out the inclusion of several senior amno figures currently on trial for graft from his cabinet including party president ahmad zahid hamidi in line with his vision of building a clean government so what this guilty verdict has done is number one it allows moya nyasen to say well number one you can see that this is an independent judiciary functioning well and then second it allows him to take a sort of a degree of remove from umno to say yes they're part of my coalition but i don't tolerate corruption this administration is committed to fighting against it but just two days after the verdict was announced amnu president ahmad zahid hamidi made the shocking announcement he said that his party will not officially join the ruling tariqata national the informal pact that's now controlling the federal government instead he said the party will focus on strengthening its muafkad national alliance with islamist party pass as well as other smaller parties within the former barasanasana coalition in this context zahid hamidi saying that he is not going to join parikatan national is is a warning sort of saying yes well you know if we do not if things do not go our way then you know we will need to be or we are actually currently re-looking at our membership in pericata nacional and then potentially you know when elections come then amna will be fielding candidates against bursatu amno information chief shari ohamdan has made it clear however that at the moment at least amno has not abandoned parikatanas now i think first of all and foremost there's a misconception that we left prikata national because we never joined it the name prick international itself was i think an opportunistic branding after the fact after the government actually was uh was in existence uh so to say that we left it as a misreading of what actually happened uh in terms of uh why we chose not to join prikrata national i think it's more of um no feeling that we've already established a relatively new and strong partnership with pass in moafaka national and that took a long process to convince not just the grassroots but some of uh our colleagues and in leadership what really matters is if we believe this coalition whatever it is called is better suited to govern this country to beat our opponent ph or whatever is that their configurations are on on that side of the aisle the reality is mr najib's guilty verdict seems to have rattled the unity within um while some are very reluctant to sidestep leaders such as mr najib who still enjoy considerable support especially among the malays others are more ready to move on from the so-called tainted leaders kairi jamaluddin who had contested for the umno presidency in 2018 is among those who feel that it's time for amno to have a clean break and start afresh it's about looking forward it's about saying that okay we've um held our breath to wait for the verdict it's out yes he can appeal but now it's time to move ahead with a new generation of leaders within abno and some people have said well he's no longer the president that may be the case but he still exerts enormous amount of influence within the party one secondly it's an open secret within the party that many people including najib himself want to come back want him to come back and he wants himself to come back and my point is let's take this opportunity to say that let's draw a line under this generation and say that we need to prepare a new generation to take over the party we know that um there are so many factions in amnoral to this there are najib's faction mud issa it's a it's a sorry the deputy president matassan there's a high reflection hishamuddin hussein faction you know and zahid's faction you know and now this thing happened to najib among najib loyalists you know there are a lot of resentment dissatisfaction and unhappiness i have to admit that from the day najib was convicted and it was on july 28th i've been meeting with najib's supporters for the last one weekend almost every day you know and they convey their resentment towards the government and the tancy muhidin amna's decision not to formalize its pact with basatu may put mr muyden in a very precarious position if umno and pass decide to leave parikhatan national the governing coalition will collapse leader versatu prime minister muhirdin has recently announced his intention to join mafaka national the political pact between amno and pass form in september last year but doing so will put the party under the shadow of the more dominant party um in this case we have prasatu going into amno's house the house that it shares with apas and that is mafa nacional so what uh muhiydin wants to do is that by joining moafa katnacional he wants to if you like strengthen the organizational links between versato amno and pass versato wants to make sure that it is in all phases of the negotiations for seat allocations what it does not want is for umno and past to decide themselves which seats they will take because then they will take the easy seats he had only two votes more than opposition so he is not very stable if two people leave his party he's finished um being the dominant party in a coalition will not be sitting on the sidelines playing second fiddle to brazatu a smaller and much newer party according to amno veteran tenku rosali hamza amno should be in the driver's seat being the party with the largest number of mps in the government he even proposed that amno should name its own prime ministerial candidate at the next general election we have always been there from day one the chief first minister was an arnold leader then when we get in independence the first prime minister was an arnold leader and so on not because nobody else can get to it but because we got the numbers so naturally next election we are going to be the dominant force and we are going to be nominating one of our leaders to be prime minister the only problem today is who is to be hoisted so we we hope that that amno will have its census together with his colleagues to push up one person who can lead this country and who is acceptable to everybody minister in the prime minister's department and basato leader muhammad rezwan mohammed yusuf however says there's nobody in umna today who can rival the capabilities and stature of mr muyden has he got one under the circumstances has he got one candidate to push as a prime minister i don't see today for whatever has happened after g14 i'm amno can bring or tenkurazali can name me who should be the prime minister candidate and what i see today tansy mouridin has done a good job again and yes he has a lot of challenges ahead of him and with us uh being the i would say proudly basato being the lead the leading party leading prikata national do work in progress that i think people are saying what we can do and the leadership beginning to show from tanzania that he can marshal the prosperity of this country if you ask does amno have one no of course not not of the stature of dan shrimah who didn't know therein lies our problem so that's why we have to rebuild the party and move on that's what that's what i've been trying to say you know move on and and and let this new generation isham ismail sabri myself rizal a few others let us lead the party and and you know we'll support tansy mahdin because he's the clear pm candidate now um but we have we have to plan for after that as well [Music] but distrust among um members of brazatu runs deep many can't seem to forgive former amno leaders for leaving and abandoning the party to join bersatu when amno led government of barazon national came under heavy and sustained attacks and now mr muridin's eagerness to work with amno again is met with skepticism and mistrust mr tenkurazali even feels that mr muyden could even be a trojan horse who could destroy amna from within modin may want to come in and weaken amnon and in fact destroy amna for wanting to replace abnormal by demanding for more seats during these forthcoming general elections and if if abnormal is deprived of the number of seats because mahadi using using his position as prime minister managed to win over more seats from no then amlo is finished and and if baha'is muay than two loses those seeds that's the end of of of of malay dominated seats and i think that's the end not just of no but also of passatu maybe a past that is some some thinking by some people and that's why they are a bit apprehensive about the involvement of brazatu in in this so-called proposed coalition between the muafakar national uh together with amno mca yc and and versatu his carefully laid house of cards is beginning to crumble after dr mahathir announced the setting up of another malay-based party pajuang many sacked versatil leaders and members have pledged to join his new party will dr mahathir be able to take advantage of the disunity within perikatan national to bring down his former ally turned political nemesis and emerge on top yet again [Music] [Music] from the moment yasin was sworn into office as the eighth prime minister of malaysia dr mahathya had already gone on the offensive for example he challenged him through a vote of no confidence in parliament to prove that mr mohidin did not command the majority support of lawmakers to remain as prime minister although the no confidence vote has not yet been tabled in parliament the backlash was swift prime minister muyden began it to flex his muscle and struck back at what was seen as a reaction to dr mahathir's hostile move four states previously controlled by pakitan harapan fell to perikata national government through defections they are johor perak malacca and kedar dr mahathir's son mukhris who was then kedar's chief minister had no choice but to step down after pakitan lost its majority in the 36-member state legislature but minister muhammad rezwan denies that the fallout was in retaliation to dr mahathir's attempt to unseat the prime minister through the no confidence vote it's not retaliation so i don't think it is a retraction it is a political move uh that stemmed from the collapse of pakistan and therefore it transcended down to the state and therefore we as a party like the cree mukkris is a member of the party should follow consensus in the party through pragata national formation with state government pedicata national could have seized control of kedah they did not do that and i think this is because muy denyasen still had hope that mahathir would rejoin pericata or would join he would go back to bersatu within the mainstream of bersatu he would support the new administration but he didn't do that i don't see it so much as retaliation i think it was sort of a second chance to see if bridges could be mended and and that was not possible on july 13 2020 the first day of parliament since the formation of the muhidin government the prime minister tabled a controversial motion to replace speaker of the house muhammad arif mohammed yusuf the move was seen as a barometer of support for his government he succeeded in replacing the speaker but he won by only two votes the speaker is actually a very very influential position and this person is charged or tasked with organizing the affairs of parliament organizing what notion what motions are going to be debated as well as very key their order so they can if they wish stall or you know really block the discussion of certain motions and particularly things like a motion of no confidence mr muhammad arif was the house speaker prior to his recent removal the widely respected former federal court judge says it is important for mr muyden to have the numbers as a sign of support for his government and that can only be achieved either through parliament or in the general election the ultimate test will be either a general election or a vote of no confidence in the house but the vote of no confidence in the house or vote of confidence conversely now we have two now or several actually um in the motion sleeves that will have to follow certain procedures too know but uh that that's how it works of course morally i believe it is not 100 right you have a combination of persons right and parties um joining as a some sort of national government but you subvert the main principle of democratic government that is the people who are chosen by the right yacht should form the government it's all a numbers game for now and nobody has a clear advantage over the other pkrs saifuddin nasution ismail is not discounting the fact that pakitan harappan could take back power if it can persuade enough lawmakers to defect over to their side we are prepared to remain in opposition but at the same time we admit that the current government is not the government that has been voted by the people so while preparing remain as an opposition preparing for next election but if the opportunity comes we will grab it you know so to grab it means we are prepared to bring down the government by getting numbers dr mahathir's next big test would be in the slim by-election on august 29 2020 and the sabah state election in september his new party has fielded a candidate formerly from bersatu to contest against an unknown candidate for the by-election the seat fell vacant following the sudden death of amnor's muhammad kusari abdu talib but amno and the perikata national coalition will not take the challenge lying down it will also do everything it takes to wrestle the state of sabah back from the opposition's party wari zan sabha now headed by caretaker chief minister shafi abdal the elections in sabah are absolutely key not only is it a momentum factor which sometimes can be overstated but it's also the unique position that um himself in nationally in the sense that he's one of the multiple potential pm candidates so even though the state elections is just going to be for state seats but if he wins it and if he wins it convincingly i think there will be a momentum not just about the votes per se but about the parliamentary seats that will be contested in sabah whenever ge happens since his sacking from brazatu dr mahathya is now leading a small party known as pejuang the party is not aligned to either pakitan harapan or perikata nassanan but can it still make an impact and take on mr muiden parikhata coalition should a snap election be called on the ground among the electorate there is anger and disappointment they had chosen a government through the vote democratically and now the their vote has become useless that somebody has come around to buy up the winners and form a government that is contrary to the expectations of the people we don't mind if the party is small but we must espouse the wishes of the people the electorate the electorate doesn't want money politics so perhaps because of that they may support us whatever the outcome may be dr mahathir fighting spirit is not lost among malaysians friends and foes alike and it seems like he will carry on fighting to return the people's mandate to the rightful owners against those who have deserted him but to many others they see this as nothing more than dr mahathiya's unending quest for respect and honor as well as a desire to leave a lasting legacy that the nation can be proud of i think it's just him it's just him he's not tired he's not tired he's part of his age he's got a lot of energy and he's he's a real strategist his mind is ticking all the time and i think mirable it's unmirable with all due respect i think i think the train has left the station photon of course he had his magical moment in 2018 and i think when he misread the transition in march this year i think for many people that train has departed he's been successful in the last two attempts and like i said um anything can happen now the situation is so flimsy in parliament the numbers are so uh such a slim majority for muiden and i cannot say that you know in in 12 months down the road we would be seeing the same prime minister i have no wish to become prime minister again and again and again this is not my doing i didn't resign one has to remember that i did not resign the party left the government i was with the party the party the government collapsed i collapsed i have no desire to be a third prime minister i am old in the brutal game of politics dr mahathir is not one who will contemplate the idea of letting go even if the odds are heavily stacked against him it's unclear if dr mahate will shine again in his final battle for political supremacy or will he simply fade out in his twilight years he is now out to prove a point and make things right will mohit and yasin be added to the list of fallen prime ministers at the hands of dr mahathya only time will tell you

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Length: 49min 57sec (2997 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 02 2020