Lim Kit Siang’s overture to Mahathir Mohamad was unceremoniously snubbed. Sounding bitter, he resorted to blaming others for having misunderstood his proposal .

I have no objection to anyone working with the former prime minister with a view to saving the country from the decadent rule and lavish lifestyle of Najib Abdul Razak and his wife. The question is, is Mahathir’s crusade against the powers-that-be an altruistic one? Does he honestly want to save Malaysia rather than his son’s political career and the vested interests of his family?

During his first term as prime minister in the early 1980s, Mahathir tried a soft approach by introducing some sort of ‘enlightened rule’ - releasing all the political detainees who had been detained without trial by his predecessors, retiring the old guards and bringing in young blood, as well as instilling a new political atmosphere by encouraging the public and the press to reflect social realities without fear and favour.

That was as much as his liberalism went. After he was severely challenged by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and almost lost the mandate to lead Umno (and thereby the country) in 1987, his velvet gloves came off the iron fist.

From then on, the Mahathir regime has been best known for the Operasi Lalang, two judicial crises, police brutality, enslaved cabinets, an emasculated press, a parliament that was nothing more than a rubber-stamp and - how can we forget? - Anwar Ibrahim’s black eye.

And the nine Malay rulers? They were as good as their picture hung in the shop - symbolic.

Chandra Muzaffar, resentful as he might have been of Mahathir who had marginalised him academically, once succinctly concluded that “the Parliament cannot check him (Mahathir), the judiciary cannot counsel him, and even his own cabinet cannot control him”.

Like many a Machiavellian leader, Mahathir is hungry for love but is also convinced that only fear can ensure he remains a force to be reckoned with, and that he can do no wrong despite that none of his handpicked successors - so he reasons - is up to the mark.

In short, he is an egoistic figure who is quick to spot the speck of sawdust in anothers’ eye but not the plank in his own eye.

When he lost his parliamentary seat in 1969, Mahathir blamed Tunku Abdul Rahman, and went on to undermine the Tunku’s leadership on the PAS platform. He was least willing to concede that it was his racist remarks that had alienated the non-Malay voters in his former constituency in Kedah.

Sacked from Umno by the Tunku, Mahathir went on a nationwide tour to save himself. Anwar Ibrahim as a student activist lent him support by mobilising the students behind him. Once Abdul Razak Hussein brought him back into Umno after the Tunku’s reluctant retirement, Mahathir abandoned his allies and started cracking down on political dissidents and student activists - Anwar included - in no time.

Paving the way for drastic decline

It was Mahathir the education minister who tightened up the Universities and University Colleges Act in 1975 which spelled the death of Malaysia’s erstwhile vibrant and flourishing student movement. Not too long ago, Marina Mahathir had the nerve to complain that she had been barred from speaking on campus, conveniently oblivious to the historical fact that it was her father who paved the way for the drastic decline in Malaysia’s standard of tertiary education.

As prime minister, Mahathir did not spare even unionists and other social activists who had nothing to do with the political tussle within Umno. While he is credited with the economic transformation of the country, his achievements were largely cancelled out by his blatant use of the police, judges and other state powers to finish off Anwar’s career.

When he was sidelined by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Mahathir did not hesitate to make his voices heard through various bloggers, even to shameless accuse his successor of “suppressing political dissent”. Some of the bloggers eventually joined the opposition and they were instrumental in delivering Umno’s shocking defeats in Selangor, Penang, Kedah and Perak in 2008.

Then again, having overthrown Abdullah and helped Najib Abdul Razak to the throne, Mahathir began to work vigorously against the opposition because he knew Mukhriz Mahathir’s, ie. His own son’s chances of continuing the political dynasty that he had started would be close to nil had Umno lost the federal power.

He again changed heart after the Najib camp collectively denied Mukhriz an Umno vice-presidency, a ticket to the ultimate goal of prime ministership.

And throughout his political career, he has never stopped demonising the DAP as a Chinese chauvinist party and Kit Siang as Lee Kuan Yew’s ‘secret agent’. Furthermore, anyone who attempted to halt his authoritarian rule would invariably be labelled ‘racist’, ‘religionist’, ‘anti-Malay/Islam’, ‘sexual deviant’ and whatnot, as if only the doctor himself was squeaky clean, saintly and principled.

No, Mahathir has never belonged in the political wilderness, but is quick to sell anyone out when the time is right. He is intensifying the pressure on some dark horse within Umno to get rid of Najib so that he would be one step closer to fulfilling his ambitions.

Like many, I am exasperated at the excesses and arrogance of the Najib regime, but the Mahathir clan would only win my support and respect if they could start fighting for the restoration of the public institutions so ruined over the past three decades. This they can’t do, for obvious reasons.

After all, it was Mahathir who spent 22 years to demolish our public institutions, corrupting the judges, politicising the once professional and neutral bureaucracy, stifling the press and dissenting voices and jailing political opponents at whims and fancies. By the time he stepped down in 2003, there was already not much checks and balances to speak of.

Malaysians are politically ignorant and powerless

Thanks to the authoritarian system that Mahathir has bequeathed Umno with, Najib can now arrest people to his heart’s content. If one thinks in speaking against Najib, Mahathir can save Malaysia from ruins, it shows only how politically ignorant and powerless Malaysians are.

The Mahathir clan will not be more ethical and transparent than the Najib regime. Rather, they have been proven to be smarter at hiding their dirty linen. Once the old man is back in the seat of power, there is bound to be a total reversal of all the breakthroughs that we have made since March 2008.

Scandals, as far as Mahathir is concerned, are simply a means of control. He used them to keep his ministers in check and to ensure their loyalty to him. Out of power, he has been using one scandal after another to first force Abdullah into early retirement and now to undermine Najib, all for his own purposes.

You use all the scandals to bring down the current leader and then what? Put another idiot in charge and, when you are not happy that he is not singing your tune, get rid of him again?

Can Mahathir offer an across-the-board reform agenda?  He simply can’t, because strong institutions, separation of powers and checks and balances are not what he believes in. All that he wants is power, power and more power. Period.

This is just a quick recap of Mahathir’s Machiavellianism and unscrupulous exploitation of anyone who can be used to advance his agenda. I would prefer the opposition to fight the entire Umno establishment than to form an alliance with the Mahathir camp, which will most probably benefit Umno at the end.

One must never forget how the once-strong opposition movement died after Gerakan and PAS were coopted into joining the Barisan Nasional in 1974, and Malaysian democracy slipped into a coma, only to regain consciousness in 2008.

Working with Mahathir is akin to dancing with the old fox. Even if some Pakatan leaders think it is worth trying, the country simply cannot afford a return to a full autocracy.

JOSH HONG studied politics at London Metropolitan University and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. A keen watcher of domestic and international politics, he longs for a day when Malaysians will learn and master the art of self-mockery, and enjoy life to the full in spite of politicians.