It is often said that the leopard cannot change its spots, but who is saying that former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is a leopard?
At worst, he is a cunning old fox, but, as long as he is a fellow human being, his heart can change, hopefully for the better of the nation. The only thing that he cannot change is his age.
When confronted with the imminence of death, most people do change the course of their lives because they know, after this, they will have to face the judgement. Muslims believe this, don’t they?
When they are removed from the corridors of power, and they begin to differentiate right from wrong, their hearts will change, especially after they have tasted their own bitter medicine.
Countless examples
Former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim was also accused of all sorts of racism, and faced flak over his push for Islamisation, but after being out of Umno and becoming the de facto opposition leader, he began to realise that the world is much bigger.
When he was with Umno, he could do a lot of things because Umno Baru became the only power base in the country, far more superior than the royalty. As the saying goes, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
After being imprisoned for a case where he had allegedly abused his power (and this only happens when one is out of Umno), the more practical ones among us have gravitated towards him because we saw a change in his worldview. He appears to be talking more about equality for all Malaysians.
In fact, I like his daughter, Nurul Izzah’s statement in one of the interviews conducted by Patrick Teoh, where she was seated with Hannah Yeoh. “After so many years after Independence, why are we still taking about race?” This is the new generation of Malaysians who will bring the country to the next level.
Christians will agree with me that people’s hearts can and do change, unless they are eternally doomed. The apostle Paul was a great persecutor of the Christian faith, but after his personal encounter on his way to Damascus, we saw a man fully committed to the spreading of the gospel among the non-Jews.
John Newton, who wrote the song ‘Amazing Grace’, was a former slave trader. Ironically, this stirring song has been closely associated with the African-American community. We are told that his mother had never given up praying for her son. Prayer changes the course of a man, and the course of a nation.
Arguably, while I agree that it is the gospel that transforms people’s lives, and we have countless examples of how people’s hearts have been changed, we cannot deny that people can and they do turn a new leaf ,too.
Muslims believe in repentance (taubat). I have seen people who, upon realisation of their wrong, will begin to do all the right things. Why are some of us still waiting for Dr Mahathir and his team to apologise publicly for the wrong that they have done in the past before we accept their change of course?
If we had listened hard enough, we would know that former deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin said that Umno is like a vehicle that needs to be scrapped.
The only people who unfortunately apparently have never repented were French king Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette (who were both beheaded by the French revolutionaries) and former president of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda (they were deposed).
If anything, the race-based new party of Mahathir and Muhyiddin is partly to enable them to target the rural Malays.
Old policies did not work
By now, Dr Mahathir should realise that the old policies crafted in the seventies have not worked to help the majority of the Malay population. It has bred nepotism and cronyism, and now, kleptocracy.
It created a breed of Malay feudal lords who are rich and powerful at the expense of their own race, and more so, the other races who make up more than 50 percent of the population.
The bumiputra in Sabah and Sarawak, for example, have been marginalised. While an entire Iban village in rural Sarawak have to depend on a power generator for a few hours at night, the children of wealthy and well-connected people can drive in posh vehicles that they themselves would not have been able to afford if not for their well-connected parents.
Although Malaysia is a democratic nation, the feudal mindset has not changed very much within the Malay community. The farmers including the majority of the Malays in this country remain as poor peasants and struggling with even the pursuit of a good education, while the well-connected elites continue to bask in their wealth.
Still resonates with rural people
My personal take is that, if we want to see a change of heart in the rural Malays, Dr Mahathir has to put his hands to the plough to go on a ceramah circuit around the country.
There is still a lot of respect for the nonagenarian especially with the rural folk. I am sure that they will warm to Dr Mahathir.
This will bring a paradigm shift to the country’s politics, especially when other speakers like DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang can speak alongside Dr Mahathir.
Therefore, as rascally as Dr Mahathir allegedly was, people do change - and they should be given a chance to prove themselves.
STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008. - Mkini
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