Sholto Byrnes of ISIS observes that Mahathir Mohamad may have succeeded in ousting the PM after him, but has failed in doing the same with Najib Razak.
PETALING JAYA: The resignation of former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad from Umno on Monday, was met not with tears but smiles from those in the party, who can breathe a sigh of relief now that the country’s perennial “back seat driver” is finally out of the political equation.
In an opinion piece appearing in The National, an English language daily in Abu Dhabi entitled “Back seat drivers are rarely helpful in politics”, Sholto Byrnes, senior fellow at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS), Malaysia said Mahathir although vowing not to be a “back seat driver” when he left office, did however do precisely that to both his successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the country’s current prime minister, Najib Razak.
While effective in unseating Badawi, Mahathir however failed to repeat his successful manoeuvres on Najib, noted Byrnes, who at least now has a shot at “driving by himself.”
“At least, now that the former leader has left Umno, the Malaysian prime minister will not have to deal with distractions from the back.
“The IMF recently commended his (Najib) stewardship of the country’s economy. In these challenging times, Mr Najib should be left to do the driving by himself,” Byrnes wrote although acknowledging that Mahathir was unlikely to stop trying to “eject Najib from the driver’s seat.”
“Why was Dr Mahathir so keen to drive them both from office?” Byrnes asked, noting that Mahathir was “enraged” that both leaders had minds of their own and chose to do things their way.
“The two prime ministers courteously listened to his advice; and then made up their own minds, regardless of what he had said,” Byrnes said, adding that Badawi’s and Najib’s unwillingness to carry out some of Mahathir’s “pet projects” including the crooked bridge to Singapore, “enraged” him no end.
“Dr Mahathir, in other words, expected to be able to be a “back seat driver” and became very cross when he couldn’t. Hence the fireworks.”
Byrnes also pointed out that the world was replete with other leaders like Mahathir, who were themselves “back seat drivers”, who made it tough for their successors to make it on their own.
He listed Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, who was a thorn in the side of John Major; Russia’s Vladimir Putin who did the same to Dmitry Medvedev; and Poland’s Jaroslaw Kaczynski among others.
“As in cars, back seat drivers are generally unwelcome in politics,” Byrnes said, nothing that even the online Free Dictionary defined the term as “a passenger who gives unwanted and/or unneeded directions to the driver; also, a person who interferes in affairs without having knowledge, responsibility, or authority for doing so.”
-FMT NEWS-
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