DR Mahathir Mohamad, I would bring your kind attention to your decision to grace the Malay Dignity Conference in Shah Alam, Selangor recently. I foresee this as a tell-tale sign of creeping imported Wahabist ideology from the Middle East, especially Saudi, which forbids non-Muslims (Kafirs) to hold important posts in the PH government.

Dr Mahathir, shouldn’t the PH government’s focus be on the plight of the minority races and the aborigines, including the natives of Borneo, right here in Malaysia, instead of harping on the Malay supremacist issues that good old professor Zainal Kling claimed goes back 5,000 years down memory lane?

If memory serves me right, under the guise of NEP, now rebranded as Shared Prosperity 2030 – minorities have been sidelined and discriminated over decades in our country. You are the prime minister for all, not just Malays, who by the way voted for your nemesis Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib Razak by the hoardes. When I see the smiling picture of you in the newspapers holding the hands that didn’t vote for you in GE14, it makes me wonder – is this really the person who came to my hometown in Taiping prior GE14, asking us to reject the evil BN and PAS? Now I finally understood the sublime message that you uttered earlier; between the unknown angel and the known devil – you have rooted for the evil one all the while!

May 8, 2018 was the clarion call of the people’s power that questioned the powers that be – political masters are not indispensable and they can be toppled through the ballot boxes. Not forgetting the Bersih rally which you and your good wife, joined back then. We, in Hindraf did as well in November 2007. Not the Rohingyas, Zakir Naik or his well wishers from Umno and PAS!

The socio-economic crisis in Malaysia, such as poverty due to income disparities, tertiary student hardships, B40 families unable to cope with rising costs, corruption scandals, as well as racial discrimination endorsed by Apartheid-like policies are nonetheless a form of minority genocide happening in front of our own eyes!

The minorities have given you the mandate to rule and made you the 7th prime minister by casting their votes during GE14, and rejected the kleptocrats headed by Najib and his minions. The Ummah, Bangladeshis, Indonesians, Rohingyas, the absconded fugitive from Penang, Low Taek Jho and another one from Mumbai, Zakir and his family members didn’t vote for you. We did! Yet, Zakir and his followers are allowed to roam freely, creating animosity between the different races here. While the latter went to a VVIP residence in the heart of KL to enjoy iced Milo, keeping his other hand firmly inside the cookie jar!

Dr Mahathir, right now it’s hard to say, since some of them have ICs and permanent resident status given by the authorities, like what happened in the Borneo states decades ago. In recent times, a Chinese national got an IC in Penang. What he was thinking? I think it’s going to be a tough call in the next GE15, voter lists are getting more diverse and younger.

Dr Mahathir, climate change is going to be the biggest genocide of human beings in human history. Yet, we are casual about rate of deforestation and its side effects such as haze, extinction of wildlife, and recently, an environmental activist by the name of Greta Thunberg said in the UN that we are doomed by 2030! Instead of us worrying about the disembarkation of a certain community from the gravy train, we are facing extinction en masse – coastal city inhabitants and countries due to climate change.

Dr Mahathir, let’s end the facism now… start building a New Malaysia! – October 7, 2019.

* Vijay Shanmugam reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.