WILL HISTORY CONTINUE TO BE KIND?

Ten years ago, Tun Dr Mahathir spoke to the media on the looming Anwar spectre. He was at his acerbic and pungent best when he commented on the desirability of Anwar Ibrahim as PM as he was jailed for committing sodomy and abusing power.

Dr Mahathir more than once said that history will be more kind to him. How history will judge him is not important to the country? What he did and did not do during his tenure is. He did preside over a decade of unprecedented growth. He terrorised and removed judges who interpreted laws not in his favour. He even curtailed powers of the rulers who obstructed his ways. He also presided over a decade of rampant corruption, and a huge flight of capital from the country. On a net basis more went out than came in.

But Dr Mahathir is right. History will be kind to him nevertheless. History is always kind, unless you are a real monster like Hitler. Why even Stalin and Mao Zedong are enjoying major rehabilitations in Russia and China. Tun Abdullah Badawi and Ismail Sabri and Muhyiddin Yassin too look burnished and bright now. And look at how so many long for Najib Tun Razak now, he is ‘Bossku’ even though he is still languishing in Kajang Prison serving a 12- year prison sentence.

In the end Malaysians are a very kind people. We put up with so much and yet can be charitable. That’s why after six decades we have had regime transitions without bloodshed on the streets.

Question now is whether history will continue to be kind ever after? What kind of a Anwar will history bequeath to us?