Beware the opportune saviour

True to a tee, Malaysian politics at the end of the week has proven that there are no lasting friends nor enemies in the world of politics.

On Friday, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad appeared to draw his last ace card in his almost-8-month long battle against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak when he did what most would have thought impossible – he teamed up with former foes.

To see the likes of Dr Mahathir sitting in the same room, much less at the same table, as his age-old political rivals like DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang and civil society leaders who have been strongly critical of his policies, was slightly unsettling for those of us who grew up bearing witness to the venom between them.

The strangeness of it all was not lost even on Dr Mahathir, who seemed to emphasise in his statement to the press that the only thing they shared in common was the desire to see Najib resign.

Reactions towards “Team Mahathir” were swiftly approving, with many – including those who once decried him as a dictator and architect of Umno’s culture of money politics – now hailing Dr Mahathir and his new allies as the wave that will finally clear the rough seas that Malaysia has been facing over the past year.

Nowhere is this irony more apparent than in a twitter poll by a site calling for the release of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim – who once blamed Dr Mahathir for ruining his life – that saw him coming in as a close second in popularity for the next Prime Minister.

Dr Mahathir’s rallying cry of “Save Malaysia” has resonated with many Malaysians who have grown tired of waiting for the answers behind the millions of dollars in Najib’s accounts, or have become desperate to get a straight answer from the government over 1Malaysia Development Berhad's (1MDB) colossal loss of taxpayers’ ringgit.

But as angry as we are with the total lack of transparency surrounding these two issues, we should be mindful that change must be based on strong principles and a clear long-term agenda, the very things missing in the message from Dr Mahathir’s group of unlikely bedfellows.

Sympathisers say there is no need to have any more a common ground than the desire for Najib to resign, but the logical question Malaysians must ask ourselves is, what happens after?

If removing Najib will pave the way for other self-serving leaders, then we are merely setting ourselves up for further disappointment and downfall as it is simply a matter of time when Malaysia will see herself in this same, decrepit situation.

To save Malaysia, we will need to do more than force the resignation of one man. Reclaiming our nation’s pride and potential will need a daring reform of our key institutions, a return of judiciary independence and new leadership that puts the nation's interest before self.

Now is as good a time as any for Malaysians to unite and fully support any effort to raise our nation up from the ashes.

But in our haste to find a way out of our political deadlock, we must not forget that it is the policies and culture of corruption that trace back to Dr Mahathir's 22-year reign that has led to the impenetrability of the very man that he wants removed today.

Leading this people's movement against Najib and even resorting to unite with some of his fiercest political foes could possibly be a sign that Dr Mahathir is seeking to right his wrongs.

But until he shows us that the changes he seek go well beyond removing Najib, and into the very policies and systems he put in place decades ago, Malaysians will do well to be cautious in our support for him as leader of a movement to “Save Malaysia”. – March 6, 2016.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer, organisation or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.