Of course I agree with what Dr Mahathir said - that no political party should rule forever, and we need a strong opposition for 'the check and balance.
However, a popular party or government deserves to cling on to that power, as demonstrated when he was in power for 22 long years. He had said many times that Umno and Barisan Nasional should get full support from the voters for being able to shape up the country and the rakyat.
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Compared to the opposition whom he used to described as not having the package to rule the country, BN was accepted since the first general election after Independence.
But what he said today was an 'endorsement' for the loose-Pakatan Rakyat opposition to depose the ruling party in the 14th general election, latest to be held in 2018.
However, a popular party or government deserves to cling on to that power, as demonstrated when he was in power for 22 long years. He had said many times that Umno and Barisan Nasional should get full support from the voters for being able to shape up the country and the rakyat.
But what he said today was an 'endorsement' for the loose-Pakatan Rakyat opposition to depose the ruling party in the 14th general election, latest to be held in 2018.
Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said no political parties in this country should rule forever.
He also agreed that the opposition played a pivotal role in the checks and balances system.
Mahathir said today it would be best for a country to have only two political camps, or the people in this country would be divided and in the end no political parties could secure majority support to run the country.
He believed the bigger a political coalition the better it is. "If one party leaves, this coalition will still have the support of majority of voters and can still survive."
Easy for him to say that because he is no longer at the helm of the central administration. However, its his personal view...and I respect it.
If we talk corruption and abuse of power, it has been there since the early days, both in the ruling party and the opposition. We all are aware of that.
The only difference is that, there were no whistleblowers back then as compared to today. There was no social media for the rakyat to express dissatisfaction against the government before the new millennium and not many people dared to come forward with evidence because of the 'protection' given by top politicians.
Had the internet made its way during the early 1990s, I think Najib Razak would have been the 8th prime minister of Malaysia!
Ooppsss... PKR Youth chief, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad today warned the rakyat against getting fooled by Dr Mahathir Mohamad just because he was on a campaign to de-seat Prime Minister Najib Razak.
“We can thank him (Mahathir) for speaking out for freedom of speech, the supremacy of the rule of law and (against) corruption today, but we will not forget who crippled our democracy and who was responsible for the early scandals that affected our country.
“We will not forget who tortured and slandered (former Opposition leader) Anwar Ibrahim. We will not forget who the PM was when the rakyat was oppressed and demanding reformasi,” Nik Nazmi said in his speech at the PKR Youth congress today.
He added that Najib was born in an “abused democracy” that Mahathir himself had created.
I have to side Dr Mahathir in this matter. I believe Nik Nazmi was a toddler when Anwar was sent to prison. It wasn't Dr Mahathir who sacked Anwar from the government but the Cabinet. The court found him guilty and sent him to prison.
This PKR young leader must turn back the history pages and not making baseless allegations. And what is 'abuse democracy' he mentioned? Look at PKR itself and Pakatan Rakyat as a whole. What does he notice? A prudent democracy?