He said the former prime minister’s words when apologising at the end of his keynote address at PPBM’s general assembly in Shah Alam on Saturday sounded more like an excuse rather than an “apology”.
“This sounds like a ‘by the way before I go’ sort of statement. In other words, it’s not an important issue but just an insertion since he happened to be talking on stage,” he said.
“The apology is so general it can mean anything,” he added in his blog posting.
“Is Mahathir talking about the forex (foreign exchange) losses, or the Maminco disaster, or the jailing of Anwar Ibrahim, or the constitutional crisis, or Perwaja? Or is he apologising for all the mistakes in his 22 years as the prime minister?” he said.
Mahathir, 92, who is the chairman of PPBM and Pakatan Harapan had said: “Before I conclude this speech, I want to apologise if I was crude in my language and offended anyone. Like other human beings, I cannot avoid mistakes in politics.”
Salleh said for an apology to be sincere it has to be specific, and the apology must be made to the aggrieved party or parties.
“This type of apology can be denied later since it lacks detail. Or it can shift to cover what needs to be covered as the need arises.
“Anyway, it sounds more like Mahathir is offering an excuse for his mistakes by saying it is normal for humans to make mistakes. This means that he cannot be blamed for being human,” he added.
At a press conference after his speech, Mahathir had said it was customary for him as a Malay to offer an apology.
“I already said it’s our custom as Malays to apologise for whatever wrongdoing that people have said,” he said.
He said it was important to always be humble and apologise, stressing that whether he had done wrong or not was a different matter.
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