Is Malaysia in a political crisis?

In the recent weeks, apart from the football, Malaysians have also been entertained by public outbursts of former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad against his hand-picked successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

There were some concerns that Mahathir’s stinging comments will undermine the government and split the ruling party Umno. This danger is ominous for Abdullah as he does not want any form of challenge to his leadership.

So now there are talks that Umno will take action against Mahathir for speaking his mind.

These talks are further fueled by a statement by party deputy president and deputy PM Najib who said that party dissenters are subject to discipline.

Mahathir seems to know what his outbursts will bring. In fact he predicted that instead on answering his criticisms, the government will demonize him through the media. He may be right as we can see his former colleagues openly slamming him for his hardtalk – something which they would have not done during his regime.

"But the questions that I raised have received no answer. Maybe it is because they don't have an answer. That is why they try to demonize me, make me appear very bad." – Mahathir.

As for Abdullah, he is non-committal if Mahathir will face party action but he has said Mahathir was free to talk as “this is a democratic country”. Abdullah has not answered any of Mahathir’s criticisms yet. He however said in a statement on Monday that his government, through the relevant ministries, would reply to Mahathir's demand for answers on the issues he had raised.

"I have more important things to do, like repaying the trust given to me by the people." - Abdullah.

And while all these are going on, what is in the mind of the Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar, a former ally of Dr Mahathir? He is worried that other countries might mistakenly believe Malaysia was in political crisis.

Aren’t we in one Mr Minister? We are in one until the government responds to all the criticisms raised by not just Dr Mahathir but also other citizens. The moment we know the government is trying to shut Dr Mahathir or anyone else from raising worrying issues, we know we are in a crisis.

And the government is doing just that at the moment by using the media to either sideline the issues or to blank out the people who raise the issue.