The Mahathir Dilemma

After half a century since he wrote the Malay Dilemma, today Mahathir is faced with a new dilemma. Everyone knows that he has an axe to grind against Singapore. Now he also has an axe to grind against Chinese investments in Malaysia, deals that were signed by his foe, Najib Razak. He has so many reasons to pick on these projects and to tear them to pieces unless he could renegotiate new terms to his benefits. Oops, I mean to Malaysia’s benefits.
 
Now, why would these two axes become a dilemma to Mahathir? The Singapore axe is simple to understand. He cannot tahan Singapore’s success and be better than Malaysia, putting personalities aside. He had done many things in the past to cripple Singapore’s progress, like the crooked bridge, not selling sand and water to Singapore even when water is falling free from the sky, and sand dredging from Malaysian rivers would have served dual purposes beneficial to Malaysia. No deal if things benefit Singapore even if Malaysia stands to benefit as well.
 
Now look at what China is doing in Malaysia. The grand plan is to make Malaysia the new transportation hub to replace Singapore, his arch enemy. Malacca or Port Klang would be developed to replace Singapore and become the most important and busiest port in this part of the world. Would that be nice?
 
But the Chinese plan was negotiated by Najib and all the benefits and credit would go to Najib as well. Killing the plan would be good to Singapore as the net effect would be to kill off the competition from Port Klang and Malacca as the alternatives to Singapore. But not killing the plan would mean he has to go along with it, with Najib’s initiative to court Chinese investments, sanctioning the work of Najib. Though this would make Malaysia a new trade and transportation hub as part of the Belt and Road Initiative, he could not gain anything from it. People would say it was all the contribution of Najib.
 
There is also the HSR to Singapore. Mahathir may also want to drop this project as it would benefit Singapore more than Malaysia, allowing Singapore to be in the link of the BRI. To him, just like selling water and sand to Singapore, as long as it benefits Singapore, it is no go.
 
The Mahathir Dilemma is to support the Chinese BRI that would have transformed Malacca or Port Klang as the biggest and busiest port in the region, to replace Singapore, or to kill it and let Singapore to continue as the transportation hub in the region, with Malaysia playing second fiddle. This way, his action would actually benefit Singapore instead of killing Singapore. What would he choose, to kill the BRI and Chinese investments, or to kill Singapore?
 
This could be the making of his new book, The Mahathir Dilemma.
 
Mahathir has many other dilemmas to deal with and to write about. What about his pro bumi Malay Malaysia and his new Malaysian Malaysia slogan?