Quora Answer: Is Mahathir bin Mohamad Finding Problems with Singapore to Draw Attention Away from His Government's Failures?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Is Mahathir bin Mohamad finding problems with Singapore to draw attention away from his government’s failures and empty promises?”

That has always been Mahathir bin Mohamad’s playbook.  He launched his career with “The Malay Dilemma”. In that treatise of hate, the bible of Malay exceptionalism and racism, he wrote that the Malays were disadvantaged in Malaysia because of the Chinese.  He said that Malaysia was disadvantaged internationally because of the Jews.

When he became Prime Minister, he needed a bigger bogeyman, something closer to home to rally his rabid base.  Singapore was the perfect fit then.  We are a Chinese-majority nation, where the Malays are just another group in a secular state.  We are a finance centre, and in Mahathir’s worldview, that means Jews.  The icing on the cake is Singapore’s long-standing ties with Israel.

Mahathir returned to power as the head of Pakatan Harapan, by making many populist promises that he was never going to be able to keep.  He, himself, admitted as much.  They even gave themselves a 100-day deadline to fulfill most of these.  In his own words, the master conman said, “Actually we did not expect to win, we made a thick manifesto with all kinds of promises …”  He lied.  He played fast and loose with the truth.  And this is what he has always done.

To fool the masses, Mahathir has been busy picking fights with Singapore on everything from water rights to port limits to projects signed with the previous administration.  Every time, BN brings up a major promise not kept, Mahathir’s administration has a new problem with Singapore, and he plays the nationalist card.

Mahathir, and Malaysian politicians have no respect for Singapore, or its sovereignty. They are not our friends.  They are not our allies.  They cannot be trusted to keep their end of signed contracts and treaties.  This is why Malaysia is forever lurching from one crisis to another.  They have made it a national sport to sweep everything under the proverbial rug until there is a Mount Kinabalu of dirt in their living room.  Since nothing is ever solved, there will never ever be any progress.