HE is fuelled by disdain, even hatred, of one man. Defeat at the hands of this one man would be unacceptable, a major blot on a resume of political victories covering half a century.

So at the age of 92, Dr Mahathir Mohamad is working like never before, covering ground like never before. No invitation to speak at a ceramah is sniffed at.

Twice a week for the past 15 months, he has visited one-road towns or kampung deep in the bowels of oil palm plantations, bearing one message: Prime Minister Najib Razak is a thief and Malaysia must be saved from this thief.

This is vintage Dr Mahathir, staying on message always and breaking down complicated political or economic narratives to good and evil, hero and villain. Much like the strategy he employed in the wake of the Asian financial crisis when George Soros was branded the rogue speculator.

Since December 2015, when the citizens’ declaration to save Malaysia from Najib’s administration was launched, Dr Mahathir has visited every state in the peninsula and spoken at about 120 rallies.

He is a man in a hurry and the moment he arrives at a speaking engagement, usually with his wife, he spends time pressing flesh with ordinary folk.

The only time when the former prime minister is not making a pitch to remove Najib and oust Barisan Nasional is when he stops to pray at the local mosque and when he goes back to the hotel to freshen up. With a fresh shirt, he hits the campaign trail again and by the time he is done, it is midnight.

Most weekdays are spent in his Putrajaya office trying to build up his Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) – a tough task, given that he seems to be the only leader in the nascent party putting in the hours. The rest surface occasionally and seem to exist for soundbites and photo ops. 

‎Dr Mahathir knows that only with solid groundwork and building bridges with former political enemies can he hope to defeat Najib in the next general election.

Hence, he has reached out to Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang, Mohamad Sabu – politicians he clashed with and jailed when he ran Malaysia for 22 years. 

He also meets regularly with social activists, many of whom he ridiculed when he was in power. He knows he needs to tap into any like-minded network because his attempt to unseat Najib alone in 2014 from within Umno was unsuccessful.

The attempt grew after allegations surfaced that RM2.6 billion from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) went into the latter’s personal bank accounts.

When he failed to force out Najib, he ripped up his Umno membership and started the citizens’ declaration campaign themed “Save Malaysia”.

Almost a year later, he founded Bersatu, which is now a component of the Pakatan Harapan opposition pact.

He has taken his campaign from Perlis to Kelantan to Johor, from hotel conference rooms to makeshift wooden stages in parking lots to hamlets, speaking to Felda settlers, fishermen, padi farmers, traders as well as urbanites.

At one conference in Shah Alam in February, Dr Mahathir took the stage to address his staunchest detractors, the Otai Reformis movement – anti-BN activists who had been political prisoners under the Internal Security Act (ISA) during his administration.

As the audience – many of whom Dr Mahathir had jailed without trial – peppered him with shouts of “maha zalim” (tyrant), he said: “Let us bring down Najib first and then you can do whatever you want to me.”

Dr Mahathir has made a career out of challenging and defeating Umno leaders he once promoted. The last example of this was his successor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi‎.

He carried out a sustained campaign of attacking Abdullah from 2006 and was instrumental in forcing the PM to hand over the reins to Najib after BN lost its traditional two-thirds majority in Parliament in 2008.

For a while, Dr Mahathir was Najib’s biggest supporter and promoter. But Dr Mahathir says his protégé is now the country’s biggest crook. Najib counters that Dr Mahathir wanted to be the power behind the throne and only began attacking his leadership when he refused to kow-tow to the former PM.

‎Dr Mahathir says that he is trying to save Malaysia from a kleptocrat.

“The country is ruled by a thieving, Bugis pirate,” said Dr Mahathir in his trademark caustic style, referring to Najib’s Bugis ancestry.

“And if that thief is supported by his ministers, then we can assume that all of them are also thieves,” he said at the Padang Rengas ceramah on March 25.

“Malaysia is our country. We can’t go anywhere else. If we want to save the country, we must shoulder this responsibility and make things right.”

Najib’s supporters said the save Malaysia campaign was little more than a smokescreen by Dr Mahathir to put him back in political control. It is more about saving his legacy than saving Malaysia, they counter, adding that the former PM can’t stomach the fact that despite throwing the kitchen ‎sink at Najib, the PM is still standing.

Still, it is clear that the administration considers Dr Mahathir an adversary. The mainstream media and pro-Najib bloggers target him incessantly, painting him as a traitor to the Malay race for working with the Chinese-dominated DAP.

‎Some of these attacks seem to have some traction. 

By and large, Dr Mahathir has polled well over the past 12 months with voters willing to look beyond his patchy reform record. But recent surveys also show that Dr Mahathir’s approval numbers among Malays take a beating when he shares the stage with the likes of DAP strongman Lim or other Chinese politicians.

This suggests that Dr Mahathir must crank up his one-man political machinery even more in the run up to GE14. – April 3, 2017.