Dr Mahathir Mohamad has been hitting the road since the start of the year, fuelled by a burning desire to bring down Prime Minister Najib Razak. His message everywhere is the same: Najib is a thief. Chan Kok Leong reports from the heart of the Dr Mahathir trail.

Place: Nilai, Negri Sembilan

Date: March 8, 2017

Time: 11pm

IN this DAP seat, they are used to listening to the booming and thunderous speeches by opposition strongmen.

But here they were, late on a weekday night, waiting for an unusual addition to the usual slate of speakers at the ceramah.

Wearing a lighter version of his trademark bush jacket over a T-shirt, Dr Mahathir Mohamad took to the stage after Mat Sabu and Lim Kit Siang.

Like many other parts of the country, the 2,000-strong crowd of mainly middle-aged and elderly people were unsure about the former prime minister and Barisan Nasional president sharing the same stage with the opposition stalwarts.

While they accepted that Dr Mahathir’s policies were the catalyst for the transformation of Nilai from a rural backwater into an industrial and university township, they also remembered that he was the face of the Barisan Nasional government that introduced oppressive laws and detained their heroes Lim and Mat Sabu under the Internal Security Act during “Ops Lalang” in 1987.

‎And wasn’t it not too long ago that he was stumping for BN candidates in the 2013 elections?

But a few minutes into the speech and all is forgiven. They cheered and called out his name, as Dr Mahathir aimed digs at the current BN administration.

Watched by his wife, Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali, he also spoke about the need for the opposition under Pakatan Harapan to be united for the next general election.

“I used to be in Barisan Nasional. I know why the opposition parties could never win. They used to be too divided. BN made sure of dividing them,” said the one-time chief BN chief strategist.

 “That’s why we must put aside all our ideological differences and old spats to come together for this solitary goal,” said Dr Mahathir.

“For Najib’s BN has become too corrupted and we have no choice left but to kick them out,” he added to even louder cheers. ‎ 

Was the crowd won over by their one-time nemesis? Were they convinced by his message of change?  Hard to say.

But this much was clear. By the end of the night, some in the crowd seemed to have forgotten that he was once the enemy. – April 3, 2017.