By serendipity I came across excerpts of an interview with Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, by K. Das of the Far Eastern Economic Review. Where Mahathir is concerned, the Tunku sure does not mince his words. Even though this interview was recorded some twenty years ago, it seems that the observations Tunku had on the senile old man may not be too far off the mark after all.
When Tun Abdullah Badawi was the Prime Minister, this vindicative old man was making nasty remarks about his premiership at every juncture. He was even a strong critic of the illegal Perak state government takeover by the Barisan Nasional in February. So why am I not surprised that he changed his tune after he rejoined UMNO?
After watching that “interview” (it was more like a Western-bashing session to me), I can say with absolute certainty that the old man has certainly lost his marbles. I certainly do not know why he is accusing the British of calling the Malays “lazy natives”. That was colonialist talk some 100 years back by the likes of Frank Swettenham and R.O. Windstedt and is certainly something not repeated by the British today. For that matter, I doubt even Sackur knew what the old man was talking about. Perhaps that is the reality of his mentality, being trapped in polemics some 100 years ago!
And to be fair to Pak Lah, I think most of the problems that we see today occurring in Malaysia were due to him.