Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s claim that modern agreements such as the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) risk repeating the Malayan Union is not a warning, it is deliberate political fearmongering. By equating a negotiated trade framework with a colonial imposition, Mahathir collapses serious policy debate into emotional manipulation, weaponising history not to protect sovereignty, but to preserve relevance. The Malayan Union was imposed without consent, dismantled sovereignty, and provoked mass resistance. ART, whatever its merits or flaws, is debated within a sovereign parliamentary democracy, subject to Cabinet approval, parliamentary scrutiny, and public discourse. The comparison is intellectually indefensible but politically convenient. Mahathir has long understood that invoking existential threats is easier than engaging with complex policy trade-offs: a tactic that has defined much of his political career. What makes this rhetoric especially disingenuous is Mahathir’s own hi...