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By Ong Kian Ming & Oon Yeoh WE HAVE an embattled Prime Minister who has opted to remain in 'elegant silence' mode even as his nemesis goes all out to topple him. Yes, we are talking about Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, respectively.
So far, Mr Abdullah has been content to rely on proxies such as Datuk Seri Najib Razak and other Umno leaders to defend him against Dr Mahathir's relentless attacks. It is hard to comprehend why he does not just come out swinging. It would not be too difficult for him as the Prime Minister to ask the Anti-Corruption Agency, which comes within his purview, to investigate the various alleged misdeeds of Dr Mahathir during his 22 years in power. If Mr Abdullah cannot remember or does not know what those alleged misdeeds are, there are at least 82 Members of Parliament who would be more than happy to help compile a long laundry list for him. If one royal commission of inquiry can cause Dr Mahathir so much discomfort, imagine how distracted the former premier would be if he were the subject of several royal commissions. He would be so preoccupied with making denials and repeating 'I don't remember', he simply would not have time to attack Mr Abdullah. The Lingam tape scandal, which now has some serious momentum, can easily be used as grounds for conducting a much larger investigation into the rot in the judiciary, which would inevitably involve further investigations into Dr Mahathir. Actually, Mr Abdullah does not even have to go to that extent. All he has to do is make sure that a really serious and thorough investigation is done as per the recommendation of the royal commission report. That would be enough to silence Dr Mahathir. It seems though that he is more interested in going after Democratic Action Party chairman Karpal Singh for making an alleged seditious remark than Dr Mahathir for his role in the Lingam scandal. Why is he so reluctant to take the fight to Dr Mahathir? We can disregard the notion that he simply does not want to go after a former PM, out of respect. When that former PM is going after your throat, calling you and your family corrupt, and doing his utmost to topple you, whatever respect you might have for him surely would go out the window. So we do not consider this a plausible explanation. A more likely reason is that Mr Abdullah is complacent enough to believe that he can withstand any attacks by Dr Mahathir and actually continue as PM for the full term. His confidence might be falsely bolstered by the fact that almost all the top Umno leaders have, so far anyway, stood by him. In reality, his position is the far from stable. Dr Mahathir's continued attacks against him can only cause greater instability within Umno, which will increase the chances of BN MPs crossing over to Pakatan Rakyat. Even if he is right about Mr Najib, other Umno leaders such as Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin or Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah might muster enough support to be able to challenge him in the party polls in December. Another possibility may be that Mr Abdullah is concerned about the collateral damage from a battle royal with Dr Mahathir. It is not difficult to imagine the toll it would take on Umno, various people close to him, and even certain members of his family, once Dr Mahathir decides to really play dirty. We have all seen what a malicious gutter politician he can be by the way he went after Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in 1998. If there is an all-out war between the current PM and the former PM, you can count on the latter to practise no restraint whatsoever. Nothing is sacred and no one would be spared. It could very well destroy Umno, and by extension BN, not to mention the individual lives it would ruin in the process. If there is one person who can execute 'shock and awe', it is Dr Mahathir. That said, as the PM, Mr Abdullah can determine which cases to pursue. He could simply zero in on the ones that implicate Dr Mahathir directly without entangling too many Umno leaders. In other words, minimise the collateral damage. One should never underestimate the powers of incumbency, powers that Dr Mahathir used to great effect when he was PM. Dr Mahathir is now openly calling for Umno MPs to abandon the party and become independents. If this is not the last straw that breaks the camel's back, we cannot imagine what is. Knowing Mr Abdullah, though, he will maintain his elegant silence and in doing so condemn himself to eventual political oblivion. This commentary was taken from Malaysiakini website, and based on a podcast on www.webmobtv.com
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