By Karamjit Gill
The crown prince of Johor has voiced his concern regarding Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s vision of becoming the prime minister again. Unfortunately, the keyboard warriors supporting the opposition did not shy away from criticising his thoughts. Numerous opinions are popping up, with the message that the royalty should stay away from politics.
In 2015, when Prime Minister Najib Razak did not attend the Nothing to Hide forum, the same crown prince voiced his dissatisfaction. That time, he was hailed as a super hero because his opinion did not favour Najib. It was perfectly fine then that the royalty got involved in politics.
The crown prince was also hero-worshipped when he got involved in a spat with Nazri Aziz. In fact, pleas were made to the royalty by opposition supporters to get involved in politics to remove Najib. However, when his views differ from those of the opposition cheerleaders, their voice changes as well.
We saw the same thing when Mahathir uttered a disparaging word about the Indians. Perkasa’s Zulkifli Nordin was ridiculed prior to the last general election when he used the same word, and Najib was collaterally called a racist. However, suddenly the same word has become common and acceptable just because it came from the opposition.
DAP’s P Ramasamy repeats himself endlessly, chiding MIC for the lack of opportunity for Indians. He puts the blame on MIC because of deeds by Samy Vellu. Although Samy has long retired from the political arena, he is still being used as an excuse for voters to abandon MIC.
On the other hand, Ramasamy is campaigning for the man who destroyed Malaysia, especially the Indian community, to come back as prime minister. If MIC is to be abandoned because of their long-gone ex-leader, then Pakatan Harapan (PH) should be exiled with Mahathir at the helm.
Nurul Izzah Anwar’s response on tax exemption for rent collectors is perplexing. She says this would lead to a rush to purchase homes for rental, which would lead to an escalation in house prices. First of all, purchasing property is not like buying clothes at a sale where it could lead to a rush that affects pricing. Secondly, if the tax exemption is something that would increase the purchase of properties, wouldn’t that be a good thing?
On one hand, the opposition says the government is doing nothing to ensure that people have a roof over their heads. But when the government does something, they say people will rush to purchase homes, etc.
Mahathir has admitted on numerous occasions that he was unaware of many of the wrongdoings during his tenure as prime minister. Today, he says the government has no money and questions the mechanism by which the government will fund initiatives in its manifesto.
Mahathir has been out of Putrajaya for some time. How does he know what is happening in the government?
Isn’t it ironic that when he was in office with access to all information, he did not know anything, but when he is out with no access, he knows everything?
The double standards overflowing from the opposition are astounding. Fortunately, the majority of voters are not cyber warriors. They have an intellectual cortex that can comprehend the true colours of PH. This will definitely be reflected on polling day.
Karamjit Gill is an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.