While former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had claimed to be prepared to face arrest, his lieutenant Abdul Kadir Jasin believes that the police may not be so eager.

The former New Straits Times Press group editor-in-chief said this is despite Mahathir giving the police a difficult time by apparently courting arrest.

“I don’t think they are going to arrest him. I think the price is too much to arrest him. Maybe I’m wrong, but I do not see that the police would be that unthinking and gung-ho as to arrest him,” he told a conference on corruption in Kuala Lumpur today.

He said this when asked about Mahathir’s statement yesterday that he is prepared to face charges over his statements at the Bersih 4 rally in August, which is highly critical of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his administration, and the 1MDB scandal.

On the other hand, however, Abdul Kadir said there is unlikely to be a major backlash against the government even if Mahathir was arrested.

This is because Malaysians often look to others to do their bidding and are unwilling to fend for themselves, he said.

He added that he believes that he and Mahathir are losing the fight as the duo are battling against unfair odds.

Abdul Kadir did not explicitly mention which fight he was referring to, but it is likely to be the 1MDB issue and the RM2.6 billion political donations that Najib had supposedly received.

Najib had consistently denied any wrongdoing.

The former journalist said Malaysia is now at a crossroads where those responsible for corrupt practices must be brought to justice, otherwise there would be no point in fighting corruption at all.

“We have exposed the wrongdoing, but if we do not succeed in taking action or if we do not succeed in prosecuting the wrongdoers, then that’s the end of the fight against corruption, abuse of power, neglect, criminal breach of trust...

“If we do not succeed, then I think there is no more room, no more space, no more point even to fight corruption in this country, because corruption has not only taken a financial form, but worse than that, it has also taken psychological, intellectual form.

“We justify, we hide, we cover up the wrongdoing,” he said.