The question that’s on my mind is: “Who can you trust?”. I can imagine that some would be grateful with Mahathir’s recent comments on the AP issue, amongst others; that sparked off a debate and ‘war of words’ between the ex-PM himself and one of his own loyalists.

But who’s the bad guy, here? I’ve read some posts in forums and it seems as if people are happy that the AP issue is finally coming to light, but I suppose the question of importance to me is, how does that make Mahathir any less culpable? As he remarks, he was once the Minister of Trade and Industry before Rafidah, and should therefore have some inkling of the backroom deals going on in that ministry.

But to come right out and say he didn’t know things that were going on during his administration? I don’t quite know how to think about that. Firstly, I find it hard to believe that such rampant corruption went unnoticed under his very nose.

To think that is perhaps tantamount to accusing Mahathir of either a blindness in that regard, or outright accusing him of culpability in the goings-on at Rafidah’s ministry. That is to say, I’d be accusing Mahathir of incompetence or corruption, which no one should because neither accusation is based on fact.

Secondly, if I were to accept that Mahathir did in fact know what was going on in Rafidah’s ministry, then I would be accusing him of allowing the very corruption that he’s now trying to expose to carry on, and I would pile on another criticism, that of hypocrisy.

And now he’s threatening to release further information, citing secret communications, remembered meetings and such. The details, at this stage, seem to be less important because, to my mind, a few things will happen for sure:

  • More sordid details will be revealed
  • More people will become implicated, but things will stop before it tarnishes the top politicians…
  • Rafidah will probably step down or if she remains, will now find that she has next to no influence anymore
  • Badawi, if he’s not collaborating with Dr Mahathir in this chess game, will find some way to silence him

What bothers me is how people are taking definitive sides in this saga, either for the release of the APs or not. The plain fact of the matter is, what first started out as a complaint that APs were allowing Proton to lose market share has now turned into a witchhunt of sorts against those who seemed to have benefitted under Mahathir’s rule.

In the first place, shouldn’t both ’sides’ be equally tarred?

The Star has characterized the issue as a spat between a “mentor and protégé”, and even the contents of the article by Joceline Tan is full of the same kind of emotionally charged language. Perhaps that’s what this National Sandiwara really is at its heart: divided interests and divided loyalties. What got my goat, however, were these:

Shortly after landing at Subang airport on Sunday, he told a close friend that he had “saved Rafidah three times” in the past, the implication being that he expected more respect from the International Trade and Industry Minister.

But he was no longer interested in an apology.

And…

And if that is not enough, Tengku Mahaleel himself has some stories to tell which he is not telling yet.

So, basically, Mahathir probably knew what was going on, was keeping silent all this while, and when push came to shove, he played his trumps. Yes, one will conclude that it’s merely politics, and politics is dirty. However, the problem is one of consequences: what, if anything, will happen to Mahathir?

And yet there are those who are, get this, grateful that Mahathir’s now exposing all the bullshit that went on in MITI.

Update: as at 3.07pm, I have received an SMS alert from The Star citing Dr Mahathir who, apparently, says that the government is good, and that APs were given to the wrong people now and then, and added that those were minor things.

A deal behind the scenes finalized between shadowy parties? An agreement to seek a compromise? Or did Mahathir suddenly become aware of the hypocrisy of trying to expose the corruption underlying the issuance of APs?