The Hulu Selangor dilemma

APRIL 14 — Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir might be his father’s son but it’s a bit unfair to ask the 64,500 Hulu Selangor voters to vote for Barisan Nasional (BN) if they support his father Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

For BN is not Dr Mahathir and Dr Mahathir is certainly not BN. At least not for the past six years after he left office in October 2003.

PKR’s Datuk Zaid Ibrahim might allude to voting BN is as good as returning Dr Mahathir to power but that’s his take on it. Because the last thing that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Rajak wants for the April 25 by-election is to be framed in those terms.

He has spent the last 12 months trying to carve out a name for himself and play down talk that the Najib years would be a return to Mahathirism or that he is a stooge of the former PM.

No more is this more evident than in foreign affairs where his administration has pushed hard for more recognition from the United States. He had a warm and cordial meeting with United States President Barack Obama this week, being one of the 46 and only Asean leader invited for nuclear non-proliferation talks in Washington D.C.

Najib also enjoys close ties with Australia and is a phone pal with his counterpart Kevin Rudd. Fact is, the country’s sixth prime minister has been friendly with everyone, seeking alliances in all parts of the world to put Malaysia back on the world stage.

The other fact is Dr Mahathir would prefer not to be close to certain countries, including United States and Australia although he himself met President George W. Bush in 2002 with Najib in tow as the then Defence Minister.

For all this and believing in him, Najib has given Dr Mahathir respect and does not want to antagonise him, having seen the trials and tribulation of Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in recent years. The political aristocrat knows better than to provoke Dr Mahathir.

So, when he goes to the polls, be it a by-election or a general election, Najib wants it to be about his administration and not the baggage of the Mahathir years. It will do no good for his coalition to defend Dr Mahathir’s record in Hulu Selangor especially when they are finding it hard to compromise on a candidate for nomination day on April 17.

Mukhriz then does no favours for Najib by telling Hulu Selangor voters that they should make Zaid eat his own words by voting for BN and his father’s policies. He should leave his father out of Hulu Selangor because the election is not about Dr Mahathir.

The vote from Hulu Selangor should be for what Najib and BN can promise them with 1 Malaysia, not the past policies that still leave them without titles for their land or opportunities to better their lives while others make money and enjoy the fruits of their labour.

Najib and his coalition just have to defend their own record and back up their promises. Not fret about keeping one man’s legacy alive.

Mukhriz can do that in his own time or let his father do it, as he has done in the past six year.