The Tun, The Tun

In the 70's TV series Fantasy Island, Tattoo the diminutive sidekick of Mr. Rourke would cry "De Plane, De Plane" every time a new planeload of fantasists arrive. In the make-believe world of Malaysian politics a similar cry was also heard in the days before, during and after the elections only it wasn't for the De Plane but it was for "the Tun". Nary a single day would pass without his name being mentioned including his very public and personal slugfest in the Sun with Param Cumaraswamy. No other ex-PM has generated so much vitriol than the Tun. Some of which coming from former senior members of his 'establishment' which point to disillusionment or newly found intestinal fortitude. That many of them chose to remain quiet throughout his tenure calls into question their own integrity but that is another story.

How would you describe the man? Machiavellian, cynical, acid, strategist, sarcastic, witty, visionary, vindictive, intelligent, suave, debonair, diabolical? You can't really, at least not in a single word. In 1999 the BBC described him a 'strong man' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/172813.stm). And indeed in his heydays he was one of the many strongmen in the region. The others include among others Suharto, Lee Kwan Yew, Marcos, Pol Pot etc. There were also strong men in Africa but unlike Idi Amin for example, the Tun didn't eat his opponents. Instead, he had them arrested and sent to Kamunting. As to which is worst - being cannibalised or Kamunting? I don't know. Haven't experienced either one. maybe we should try reading the few books written by former ISA detainees. I read Kassim Ahmad's University Kedua in school. Yes those days school libraries did carry such books and personally I would prefer cannibalism, at least you're dead before you're eaten! I digress.

Syed Hamid Albar said in the Star recently that the Tun "is no ordinary person and many Malaysians take whatever he says as gospel truth" and that the Tun is an icon for those below fourty (http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/4/8/nation/20080408163241&sec=nation.)CorrectCorrect on the first account but not on the other two. He is not an ordinary person. True. But taking whatever he says as gospel truth. NOT!!!! As for the icon bit - "To each his own" as the Bard would say. True, for many of us who are in the 40s and 30s, the Tun is about the only PM we can relate to in a manner of speaking. Tunku Abdul Rahman is a 'historical' figure, Tun Razak well he's Bapa Pembangunan and Bapa Najib. I remember Tun Hussein Onn for the way he speaks more than anything else. Not that these guys were bad but they are not as relevant to my generation as Tun Mahathir. After all he dragged us kicking and screaming into the 21st century and away from our tin mines, rubber plantations and rice fields into the world of information technology and industrialisation. Without his interventionist policies we may still be an agriculture, commodity-based country contented with our place in the world like all third world countries should be.

Unfortunately the Tun also intervened where he shouldn't have and allegedly eroded and corrupted the august institutions which would have given us the check-and-balance against abuse of power, corruption and so on. That the civil service and judiciary surrendered meekly while the rest of us followed like lemmings is as much a reflection of us as it is of him. Perhaps the Tun saw that we were ripe for the taking and took his chances. Perhaps we were corrupted anyway. Lo and Behold he was right and over the last ten years of his premiership he lorded over us while we watched with envy the horse-riding holidays to Argentina and the Mediterranean cruises. Fortunately some semblance of civil society survived unbowed and laid the foundation for what happened during PRU 12. I'm sure wherever they are now, the likes of M.G.G. Pillai are smiling down on us while those who are still alive are savouring these precious moments.

Love him or loathe him, Malaysians will always have strong feelings about the Tun. Whenever we drive down the North South highway, stare at the twin towers or land at the KLIA he's there with his cynical smile. I certainly hope someone starts writing his biography soon lest he forgets. Maybe his foundation or the aptly named Institut Pemikiran Tun Dr. Mahathir (http://www.ipdm.uum.edu.my/) could do the honour. Honestly the name itself is a throwback to the days of Stalin, Mao or Kim Ill Sung. There are Malaysian historians or authors who could do it as long as it doesn't end up like the Sejarah Askar Melayu Diraja by Tan Sri Abdul Samad Idris which was in need of some serious editing. A well written, impartial biography is always a good read and would tell a lot about the subject, the time he/she/it lived in, the people around them, events, affairs and so on. Who would have guessed for example that Charles Lindbergh had an extra marital affair and in return his wife had a 'fling' with the French author Antoine de-Saint Exuperry or that despite his public support for the civil rights movement, privately Bobby Kennedy was not entirely comfortable with Martin Luther King Jr. and made disparaging remarks about the civil rigths leader.

As an aside, my late grandfather was a warder at the Kem Tahanan Morib, the precursor to Kamunting where he 'guarded' the likes of Ishak Hj. Mohamad (Pak Sako). They in turn 'converted' him and others to their cause. Pak Sako remembered my grandfather fondly in his Utusan Malaysia column as his friend who caught tenggiri in Segenting, Port Dickson.