As a specie, politicians are not generally known for consistency. Almost any politician can be shown to have changed his or her opinion over the course of time, or not to have fulfilled some promise or other. There is a grey area over which the public can be forgiving, but any politician who deliberately misleds the public would normally be on shaky ground.

Given this, there can be few leaders in either genuine or nominally democratic countries who lie so purposefully or frequently as Mahathir. His utter contempt for truth is matched only by his contempt for the public intelligence. Although he may still delude himself that his every word carries weight, Malaysians have long learnt to take all his pronouncements with tablespoons of salt.

To cite an example, Mahathir claimed that his new palace in Putrajaya costs only RM17.5 million and, to bolster up this idea, banned all photographs of it in the local news media. But it is clear from the few photos that have emerged that this amount would not even cover the landscaping with its artificial lakes and wallowing hippos (see picture this site). Many have noted that the true figure would be at least RM$200 million. Further, it was clearly absurd for Mahathir to claim that Anwar Ibrahim as Finance Minister had approved the construction of the palace with a view towards the latter’s eventual possession, even citing the design of six rooms for Anwar’s six children.

Mahathir lies every time he explains that he sacked Anwar because of the latter’s sexual immorality. Not only is he unable to offer the smallest shred of evidence, but he also prejudges the ongoing court case against his ex-deputy. Yet, on occasions, Mahathir has let slip the fact that the real reason for the sacking is because he believed Anwar was planning to challenge his position. Barely a year before Anwar’s downfall, Mahathir had publicly declared that all sexual charges against his deputy were fabricated; that he should change tack so suddenly can hardly lend support to his case.

The foul mouth of this shockingly vile leader also accused Anwar of being the only Minister who had not declared his assets to him. This was subsequently refuted by Anwar in prison. In so lying, Mahathir appears to have over-reached himself for, if Anwar had truly been in the wrong, the prime minister would have failed in his responsibility by not taking appropriate action at the relevant time.

Another instance of Mahathir’s very purposeful lying occurred during the time of Anwar’s alleged poisoning. In rubbishing this attempt at Anwar’s life, Mahathir kept harping on the idea that Anwar had delayed making public the results of his pathology test from Melbourne so as to gain greater political capital by revealing it at the time of the APEC conference in New Zealand and the Law Conference in Kuala Lumpur. Even when Wan Azizah repeatedly clarified that she had made public the results at the earliest opportunity, Mahathir still distorted the truth when he went to the United States where Americans could not reasonably be expected to be so well-informed.

Mahathir also relied on public ignorance to carry his lie concerning the independence of the Malaysian judiciary, citing as proof, the fact that the Supreme Court in 1987 had ruled UMNO to be an illegal society. What he did not proclaim was the fact that soon after, he soon removed Tun Salleh Abas as Lord President of the Judiciary on trumped up charges, putting a loyalist as head instead and thereby introducing a corruption into the judiciary that stinks to this day.

Mahathir misrepresented the success of his capital controls measure, claiming that they were instrumental in lifting the country out of recession when in fact, recovery was general all over Asia during this period and many countries had recovered faster without the benefit of such draconian tactics. Mahathir also lied when he defended the freezing of CLOB shares, accusing these shareholders of being responsible for selling down the KLSE when a more sober examination of the facts revealed otherwise. But this is one liar who hopes that you will trust him enough not to have to resort to the facts.

Every time the prime minister opens his mouth to warn Malaysians of foreign neo-colonists, he insults the intelligence of his fellow countrymen who cannot be unconscious of the fact that he courts foreign investments at the same time. This seemingly deluded PM is like an emperor expecting all and sundry to admire his new clothes when all can see that he is naked.

To propagate his lies, Mahathir uses the services of sycophantic ministers to repeat his utterances and a slavish press that can be relied upon to broadcast his most blatant untruths as though they are pearls of wisdom. The effect may be such that the Emperor truly believes that he is wearing new clothes, having so blurred the line between reality and fantasy that he can no longer distinguish one from the other. This must be the reason why he presses ahead with the sodomy charges against Anwar despite the discredited witnesses and the total lack of evidence, and then professes astonishment that the public are too perceptive to be taken in.

Not content with just being a pathological liar, Mahathir also overwhelms us with his hypocrisy by not practising what he preaches or worse, practising the exact opposite of what he preaches. Thus, while he writes in a Japanese paper that a good leader should not stay around for too long, he himself shows no inclination to quit the stage after 18 years in power. He has indeed talked about retiring practically every year over the last few years, but there has always been some excuse not to. However, we are now expected to believe that this will be his last term. Despite his age, one cannot be too hopeful that he will rise to his words this time around.

Mahathir’s hypocrisy was most clearly shown during the campaigning for the tenth general elections when he accused the Opposition of propagating lies, would you believe it? He, his ministers and his slavish press had in fact polluted the air with so many lies over the period that it truly became the dirtiest elections the nation had ever been unfortunate enough to witness. Even if the Opposition had the intent, they would not have had the means at their disposal to broadcast distortions, misrepresentations and bare-faced lies as BN had with the local news media as their attack dogs. Yet, in analysing UMNO’s less than sterling showing during the elections, Mahathir laid a large part of the blame on what he described as the lies of PAS. It is also ironic that his viper’s tongue should ascribe UMNO’s electoral reversal to “personal loyalties to individuals” when he, of all persons, is the one who demands the blindest and most unswerving loyalty from his minions.

Some of Mahathir’s utterances are so banal that one wonders whether his aging senses are sharp enough to lead the country. Take his recent statement criticising Opposition MPs for walking out in protest at the first unconstitutional Parliamentary session called to approve the interim Budget. He lamented:

"This is a very crucial matter for running the country and I would have thought the Opposition would give their cooperation for smooth running of the country. If they block these allocations, we can't pay government workers their salaries.”

Are Malaysians either so uninformed that they do not know that the Barisan Nasional has more than a two-third majority in Parliament to pass whatever trash it sees fit with or without the help of the Opposition? Or are they so stupid that they haven’t the faintest idea how a democracy works?

The fact that so many Malaysians continue to tolerate the Mother of all Liars must be because so many Malaysians have already been reduced to the mentality of infants after so many years of the tightest media control in their country. This Big Mama, after all, is not lacking in infants.

Tsu Nam, 23 December 1999
http://www.geocities.com/seachange_2000/

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