by Lim Guan Eng

(Penang , Friday): DAP regrets that former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir is growing increasingly perverse in his logic and petulant in emotion as he grow older as shown by his vitriolic attacks on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Whilst some of his criticisms are justified, many remain off the mark.

Even football offends him when asked whether he watches the World Cup, he said “it is silly for 22 people to chase one ball - (go) buy (them) one each”. Something is wrong with Mahathir if a people’s game enjoyed by billions throughout the world is considered silly by Mahathir. What then are other games not considered silly by Mahathir?

Amongst Mahathir’s valid criticism are the when the government is wrong and nobody seems to be able to voice their opposition than he will “stick his neck out for the chopping board”, as well as “the abuse of APs (approved permits) where selling something we bought for 500 million dollars and selling (it) for RM4”.

The expectation of gratitude from Pak Lah to Mahathir for appointing his as his successor his most misplaced. There is no room for such private and personal gratitude in a democracy, which would lead only to nepotism, cronyism and corruption. In a functioning democracy, gratitude should by shown and given by the leaders to the people who voted for them.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is wrong to expect gratitude from Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for appointing him as Deputy Prime Minister as democracy requires Pak Lah to be grateful not to Mahathir but to the people for giving him a huge mandate of 91% of the parliamentary seats in the 2004 general elections.

For Mahathir to demand gratitude from Pak Lah is not only a petulant display of emotion but shows that Mahathir does not understand the fundamental principles and spirit of democracy. A democracy where the people are the real bosses who expect the leaders they elect and entrusted to show not only gratitude but also accountability, transparency and good governance.

The Prime Minister should stand up and show his belief for democracy by rejecting the demand of gratitude from Mahathir in preference to showing gratitude to the people of Malaysia who gave him the largest political mandate in history with 91% of the Parliamentary seats in the 2004 general elections. He should also remind Mahathir that even though he was Mahathir’s second choice as he came third in the party elections for UMNO Vice-President, so was Mahathir 30 years ago the second choice of Tun Hussein Onn who selected Mahathir as deputy in 1976 even though Mahathir came third behind Tun Ghafar Baba and Tengku Razaleigh.

As a retired Prime Minister, whether Mahathir had made blunders in choosing Pak Lah as his successor or being backstabbed by Pak Lah is a matter that interests only historians and himself. What interests Malaysians are his economic decisions that hurt the country such as the shocking revelations by former TNB Executive Chair Tan Sri Ani Arope in the Star recently. Ani said that he was sacked in 1996 for refusing to sign Power Purchase Agreements(PPA)  with the IPPs which Tan Sri Ani considered as unfair, immoral and against national interests.

The PPAs are the cause of the huge losses faced by TNB where TNB is forced to pay RM 3.3 billion in capacity payments annually for power it does not use or sell. Such huge payments has given TNB one of the highest reserve margin in the world of 40% as compared to China’s 5%, Japan 5% and Europe 5%. To sustain and protect the profits of IPPs, 27 million Malaysians have to pay 12% increase in tariff hikes as well as higher inflation.

The government can easily waive the recent 12% fuel hike which would bring in additional revenues of RM 1.5 billion for TNB by getting the IPPs to reduce the power reserve margin by half to 20% and the capacity payments by RM 1.65 billion. The RM 1.65 billion saved easily exceeds the RM 1.5 billion from the 12% electricity

Tan Sri Ani said the PPAs which so greatly benefited the IPPs, were modeled by Tun Dr Mahathir. Would Mahathir explain why he approved such generous contracts to IPPs that cost the country billions of ringgit? Ani would definitely disagree with Mahathir that Malaysia still has money to spend on mega projects such as the double-track system or the costly scenic bridge after the billions lost on protecting the IPPs.

Finally, for Mahathir to continue to rely on Petronas oil revenue to fund Malaysia’s mega projects proves DAP’s contentions that the RM500 billion in profits earned by Petronas during the last 32 years were misused and abused to fund financial scandals in the Mahathir era ranging from:-

• the RM 5 billion losses suffered by Perwaja Steel;
• The failed attempt in 1981 to corner the London tin market through Maminco causing losses of nearly RM 400 million when tin prices plummetted in 1982.
• the RM 2.5 billion bail-out of Bank Bumiputra to cover the latter's losses in 1984. The government bails out the bank again in 1989 and in 1998 by another RM 2 billion.
• The RM 10 billion losses suffered by Bank Negara in 1992 after speculating in the forward foreign-exchange market. 
• The scandalous RM 1.8 billion shares buyout bailout of Malaysian Airlines executive chairman Tajudin Ramli 29% stake in 2000 at  RM 8 per share, which was almost 3 times the market price.

Most disconcerting is the dependency of Petronas oil revenues to satisfy the cravings for mega projects. Mahathir revealed that Petronas made a profit of RM50 billion last year and this year of RM83 billion. This year’s profits of RM 83 billion is taken up by RM 13 billion spent to subsidise petrol, RM30 billion in taxes leaving it with RM40 billion. Mahathir wants to use this RM 40 billion for mega projects such as the scenic bridge.

DAP says that this RM 40 billion in Petronas earnings this year should be not be misused and abused for mega projects but instead distributed to the people of Malaysia.  Every needy Malaysian would receive at least RM 2,000 each a year or for a household of five, RM 10,000. At times of inflation when everything is rising, including the crime rate, only our salaries do not go up. The time has come to alleviate the sufferings of the people and reduce their financial burdens by distributing Petronas oil revenue to 27 million Malaysians.

The time has come for Pak Lah to stand up to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and show that Mahathir is wrong to expect gratitude and that Pak Lah stands for political equality, socio-economic justice and and all-out campaign against corruption. Should Pak Lah miss this opportunity to show his difference from Pak Lah, then Pak Lah will be seen as weak and indecisive leader who does not dare to stand up and fight for his beliefs and principles.