Mahathir cast into wilderness by his own doing
Published on: Sunday, March 14, 2021
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Invited to call on the newly-resurrected prime minister on Tuesday morning, June 5, 2018, after the Agong had confirmed his appointment, TT was informed of the happy news by the PM, whom he addresses throughout the book as ‘Tun’.
Elated, to have the ‘incredible professional opportunity of a lifetime’ as he puts it, he went home to break the happy news to his family.
Later that day, he was bewildered to be asked, by the very same Tun to tender his resignation by 5pm that very day. As he tells it, he felt, as if the rug had been pulled suddenly from under his feet.
According to TT, he was informed by Tun that because of the “scale and magnitude of Malay opposition” to his appointment, it had to be withdrawn.
It appeared that he was to be sacrificed willingly on that false altar of ethnic pride and extreme prejudice by his mentor.
He told Tun presumably in a soft subdued huff, saying, in that case, the PM would have to issue a press statement to announce his dismissal.
Tun deftly flipped the ball back to TT’s court, asking TT to draft the statement and to give it to him by 5pm that same day.
Feeling ‘crushed’ he went back and attempted to draft the statement to fire himself. By 5 he gave up, and returned to tell Tun he could not do it. According to him, Tun was ‘understanding’, and asked to have the incomplete draft of the statement left with him.
However, at 7.30 in the morning he received what he described as the “second bombshell” in less than twenty-four hours.
Apparently something had changed the old man’s mind, and he was now willing to have TT as his AG as, he confides to TT, he “enjoyed his full trust and confidence”, saying in addition, that he, TT should “seek his advice and guidance” if he encountered any problem from any person or any government department’.
Very odd advice, to say the least, meant to be avuncular perhaps, but unexpected from a PM to his AG as it seems to carry a gentle warning.
The incident is retold later in the book under the chapter heading, “Candidate”, but disappointingly the narrative there does not reveal anything new, but a subtle twist is palpable.
There TT reveals that before his appointment was confirmed, he had been informed by Tun that he, Tun, was meeting resistance to his appointment from the Agong.
However, Tun hastened to assure TT that he had his trust and confidence. Then TT adds an embellishment that leaves the attentive reader more than a little puzzled, TT adds:
“On Monday, 3rd June, 2018 the Agong signed my letter of appointment. The newly-released Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim visited the Agong in his Palace in Kota Bahru that day.
But reports were conflicting about Anwar’s role. Some say he objected to my appointment, while others said he supported it.”
It seems the new AG was having doubts about the new Deputy PM’s confidence in him. Perhaps he was perceived as being too much of a Tun man?
Whatever the circumstances it was not an auspicious beginning for our new AG, and circumstances later were to bear that out.
What follows thereafter in the first part of this 500-page book is slightly bland, but nonetheless quite interesting.
In it TT tells of his fore-bears who were Syrian Christians, of his humble but illustrious background, and of his journey to becoming a lawyer.
It is the second portion of the book that contains the meat, and the spice. The Malaysian reader, well acquainted with the tales of venality, corruption and criminality of the previous administrations may find accounts of Altantuya, Kevin Morais, and the exploits of Najib slightly stale, but he will gain fresh insights from the insider knowledge the author acquired of these stories.
For instance, TT recounts, with some relish, an incident in court when the then AG, Abu Talib was defending what TT thought was a poor case for the AG, before the outspoken trial judge, Harun Hashim.
After patiently hearing out the AG, the judge peered down from the bench and said to the AG, “The law requires a chicken, and you have produced a duck.”
Smarting mightily from the comment, the AG afterwards held a press conference outside the court to complain about the ‘rude’ treatment he had received from the judge. It is often said that this was the reason Tun disliked Harun, and the judiciary as a whole.
Though most of the court rulings were at this time in favour of the government, he, the PM often made negative remarks about the judiciary which caused the Lord President, Salleh Abas, write a letter of complaint to the Agong.
This ultimately led to the removal of Salleh Abas.
TT however, seems to put the blame for the sacking of the Lord President, on what he felt was a vindictive AG, Abu Talib.
He says, playing down Tun’s role in the sacking, “In any event, it was the task of his chief legal adviser, Attorney General Abu Talib, to have educated him [Tun] on the matter.”
His impression was that the former AG was obsessed with winning every case for the government, whether a criminal prosecution or a civil action.
Further, he was of the opinion that if Abu Talib had stood his ground, based on legal arguments, the judicial crisis of 1988 would not have occurred:
“In my opinion, it would be out of character for the Prime Minister Dr Mahathir to have ordered his Attorney General, against the latter’s opinion to commence tribunal proceedings against the six judges.”
Similarly for Operation Lalang, TT identifies the two persons responsible for the decision to detain such a large number in this “brutal exercise of state power against its own citizens”; the Inspector-General of Police, and the Prime Minister whom he said accepted the list given by the IGP, thereby attributing it seems, a lesser role to the PM.
In one long chapter entitled “Goldman Sachs” TT’s prose becomes animated, galvanised, as it were by a sense of righteousness.
The reader feels the verve in his prose as he unfolds the drama. He starts by acknowledging the might and reach of that organisation, how the ‘revolving door’ between the financial giant and the DC regulators renders the name of Goldman almost ‘sacrosanct’ in financial circles.
Referring to the 2008 financial meltdown, TT was subtle, but biting; ‘If those who caused the 2008 crises were grossly negligent or hopelessly irresponsible, those who designed measures to solve the problem were accused of financial irresponsibility, bias and conflict of interest, in other words, self-serving conduct. Goldman was involved at both ends’.
He finds support in Naomi Klein, the well known economic commentator and author whose opinion on the crisis he quotes:
“…the people in charge are less interested in fixing it than in taking care of their friends who take care of them. It is a straight up pillage, what a kleptocratic regime does.”
Strong words aimed at that mighty Colossus that seems to dictate a different set of rules for others, and to punish economically without scrupples, those it deems recalcitrant.
TT sees the 1MDB scandal as part of a series of acts known as ‘monetising the state’ whose victims include, before 1MDB, Greece, Libya and now Venezuela.
It is clear what his views are on such activities when he quotes Matt Taibbi, the author, journalist and podcaster on the modus operandi of Goldman:
“The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it’s everywhere. The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”
TT continues with the metaphor:
‘In 2012 murmurs of discontent began to swirl in financial circles intimating that the giant vampire squid had reached Malaysian shores.’
He recounts for the benefit of the general reader how Goldman , against all industry standards, arranged for three bond issues, guaranteed by the Malaysian government, and another sovereign fund, and how the money was subsequently siphoned to the British Virgin Islands, the infamous tax haven for dictators, drug lords and tax evaders.
The reader is then guided on the workings of the bond market, and the laws that govern it under our Capital Market and Services Act, 2007, highlighting the particular clauses under which Goldman would be liable.
He lays down eight solid reasons why Goldman should be prosecuted.
In addition he notes that under the Act, the court could order not only a fine, but also compensation against the guilty for the loss. In his calculation our country should be compensated to the tune of at least US6.9 billion.
And so with a team of experts on Securities and Market legislation he compiled criminal charges against 17 of Goldman directors in three countries.
He says, “The only way of securing the attention of Goldman Sachs was to criminally charge them. It would act as a strong pressure point in compelling Goldman Sachs to deal directly with Malaysia.”
Needless to say Goldman’s standing in the financial was badly bruised; its CEO, David Solomon, publicly apologized to the Malaysian people in January 2019. The charges also appeared to touch a raw nerve in Washington.
Goldman started to pull strings. The US Department of Justice proposed that in lieu of the prosecutions Malaysia joins the DOJ in its action in the US against Goldman so as to work towards a global settlement.
The Deputy US AG called. TT rejected the proposal, and also the subsequent increased offer of settlement of up to US4.4 billion outright. It fell short of what he expects.
He had Goldman by the short hairs and he was going to drag its directors to court in Malaysia to answer for the crimes under our CMSA legislation.
Malaysia, it appears, was on the verge of making commercial history in striking a blow for the victims of the financial crisis of 2008.
Poised like Jack with his axe over the beanstalk, it was about to bring down the financial giant. Then, suddenly it all ended not with a bang but with a whimper.
The new PN government agreed to waive charges in return for a sum US2.5 billion in cash, and a further US1.4 billion in a guarantee over assets. Perhaps Tun had blinked, at any rate he bolted.
It was an inexplicable and bizarre decision, says TT of Tun’s seeming political sepukku, but regardless of everything, he was ready to go out with Tun.
He discovered later though, that Tun had lined up what he thought was enough to form his own government, 222 members of parliament, including members of Umno and PAS and excluding those whom he considered his detractors.
TT and Lim Guan Eng were to be dropped. They were the trade-off. They were dispensable sacrificial lambs. Tun would make a come-back without the baggage that was not wanted.
The tail has wagged the dog. Tun casually told TT he could stay until the end of his contract, and that he was sure Umno and PAS would agree.
One would have thought at this stage, TT’s last words would be, “Et tu, Tun? Then fall Thomas.”
But no, as he ponders on the inexplicable, he finds the account of Tun’s betrayal difficult to write, he says: ‘it pains me to be critical of the Prime Minister who had appointed me and stood by me for over twenty months...’
Still, TT thought it was more honourable to resign to the PM who had appointed him rather than to be fired later.
It did look for a time that the old fox could pull off a coup again, but it was not to be. There is poetic justice in the Wilderness yet.
Out-foxed, the old man found himself excluded from the script he thought he was writing, suddenly cast out into the wilderness, like old King Lear, who rails against his ungrateful daughters and quietly loses his mind.
One fancies that this might be the wilderness that the author alluded to in the title.
David Lim
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