Mahathir has a dream

摘要

He Is firmly in command, but Mahathir Mohamad is still being snapped at from all sides. A good indicator of his troubles was his speech on June 17th to the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), one of the biggest parties in his ruling coalition. Although all of Malaysia's prime ministers, including Dr Mahathir himself, have been members of the Muslim-Malay majority, he told the MCA'S annual assembly that the country's next leader might well come from the Chinese, Indian or other ethnic minorities. That would be an excellent notion for the prime minister to champion, if anyone thought he really meant it. But given the divisions within his own party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), Dr Mahathir's panderings amount to a rare admission of his vulnerability.