Marhaen Dan Rakyat

When Mahathir Mohamad filed a police report accusing Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of “sabotaging” Malaysia via a US trade agreement, the gesture felt less like a legal intervention and more like a return to a very specific kind of political theater. At its core, the report does not present evidence of a crime; it presents a political argument dressed up as one. Trade agreements are negotiated by governments the world over, involving a messy reality of trade-offs, compromises, and risks. They can be brilliant or flawed, but a disagreement over policy does not automatically amount to treason or a constitutional breach. If it did, every major treaty Malaysia has signed over the last four decades would warrant a criminal investigation. If there were a genuine belief that the Constitution had been violated or that Parliament was bypassed, the appropriate venues, the courts and the Dewan Rakyat, exist for precisely that purpose. By choosing a police report instead, the issue is intention...

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...

Dr Mahathir Mohamad has once again ruffled feathers in Sarawak — and this time, it’s clear he hasn’t learned much. In a recent interview, the former prime minister warned Sarawak not to “seize control” of its oil and gas from Petronas and said any demands for more autonomy should be brought to Parliament — not “settled behind closed doors.” He even suggested Sarawak was poor under British rule, so they should be thankful things have improved. Seriously? These kinds of remarks aren’t just outdated — they’re insulting. And for Sarawakians, they’re nothing new. Mahathir’s track record with Sarawak has always been marked by top-down control, centralised policies, and little understanding of East Malaysia’s unique history and needs. His recent comments just put an exclamation mark on that legacy. Let’s not forget — Mahathir led Malaysia for more than two decades. And during that time, federal power became more and more concentrated on the Peninsular. For Sarawak and Sabah, that meant less a...