I wanted to use my 3rd cultural post to revisit Malaysian politics and discuss a little bit about the monumental shift in government that transpired at the end of February this year. Tun Mahathir Mohamad ('Tun' is an honorary title) had ruled over Malaysia as Prime Minister for over two decades within the Barisan Nasional party before ceding power in 2003, returning to power in a newly formed coalition party in 2018 after the 1MDB scandal brought down Prime Minister Najib Razak. At 92 years old that year, Mahathir became the oldest head of state in the world and it was not clear when he would step down, though he indicated his willingness to transfer power at some point. That transfer came in February when Mahathir announced his resignation from the Pakatan Harapan ('Hope') coalition party. Immediately after, the Malaysian king appointed Mahathir back to the position of Prime Minister in an interim fashion until a new one was chosen. Many believed that the new one would be Mahathir again under changed party affiliations and leadership, but Muhyiddin Yassin quickly arose to fill that void and become Prime Minister. This process is admittedly somewhat complicated, but it led to the restoration of the Barisan Nasional's power in the country and the formation of the "kerajaan baharu," (or "new government").
In light of all of these political developments, I wanted to look at a speech from Tun Mahathir Mohamad from February 26, 2020 when he was serving as interim Prime Minister. I was able to locate a video of the speech and transcripts in both English and Malay. In this speech (or "ucapan"), Mahathir noted how he wanted to apologize ("memohon maaf") for the country's fractured political situation and emphasize that he and His Majesty the King ("Yang di-Pertuan Agong") were both actively working out a solution. He noted that he resigned ("letak jawatan") because he was purportedly unable to choose a side within the coalition and that he was facing an onslaught of accusations about seeing "power and
position" ("kuasa dan jawatan") as the "end all, be all" (this was stated in English). He acknowledged his promise to allow Dewan Rakyat to determine who would replace him, should Mahathir return with support from both sides. He further noted his reasoning for resigning: the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), two leading parties and the heads of the Barisian Nasional coalition, would be taking up too much power in the government outside of coalitions. He noted that, as an "ordinary human being" ("manusia biasa"), he was prone to making mistakes and asks for forgiveness if his resignation was indeed "wrong" ("salah") or a mistake. He concluded by stating that, whether or not it is popular, he is acting as interim Prime Minister because "only the interests of the Nation will take precedence" ("Hanya kepentingan negara sahaja yang akan diutamakan").
I was glad to have found this speech so I could practice both reading the transcript and listening to his pronunciation a little bit, while also having a dedicated English version should I need to reference it. Many words in politics can be somewhat formal, so there was definitely much for me to learn here. I hope this post was enlightening about the political situation in Malaysia.
Sources:
https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2020/02/569342/dr-mahathirs-full-speech-text-english
https://www.bharian.com.my/berita/nasional/2020/02/659618/ucapan-penuh-tun-dr-mahathir-mohamad
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