Dr M: I resigned because I had stayed too long
From our Correspondent
In an interview with Malaysia news agency Bernama, ex-Malaysia Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad revealed that he resigned not because of criticism from others, but because he had “stayed for too long”. (read article
http://temasekreview.com/?p=13980)
The example was raised as a veiled criticism of Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) leader Samy Vellu who continue to hold on to his position despite losing the support of the Indian voters.
Dr Mahathir was Malaysia’s longest-serving Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003. Though he was criticized for being an authoritarian leader, he resigned out of his own accord in 2003 and passed his position to his deputy Tun Abdullah Badawi.
His youngest son, Datuk Seri Mukriz Mahathir was then an exco member of the powerful UMNO Youth, but he did not receive any special favors from his father.
Urging Malaysian leaders to resign and take responsibility for their failures, Dr Mahathir said:
“If we look at other countries, whenever a leader fails, he resigns. In Japan he commits harakiri……Malaysian leaders still do not understand that when they fail they should resign of their own volition, no need for others to tell them.”
Unlike their counterparts in the West, Asian leaders do not have the “culture” of resigning to take responsibility for their mistakes or step down voluntarily after years in the government.
Some don’t even bother to apologize despite commiting an unforgivable mistake which caused distress, angst and inconvenience for many people.
Others still jet around the world at the expense of taxpayers when they should have stepped down and made way for younger leaders a long time ago.
The worst of the lot are those who treat their countries as a personal fiefdom to be passed on to their descendents and assigned incompetent relatives and cronies to manage its wealth who refused to resign after losing billions of dollars of public monies.
As Dr Mahathir puts it so succinctly – all they need to do is to “retire” gracefully with their personal fortune still intact. It is not as if they cannot afford to tour the world in their own personal capacities. Why do they continue to leech on the people? Do they have any sense of shame at all?
No leaders, however great or capable are indispensable. For all his flaws, Dr Mahathir did one right thing in resigning on his own when he could have stayed on for perpetuality.
One of the attributes of a truly great leader is to be able to relinquish power when the time has come to do so instead of becoming intoxicated by it and used it to entrench himself and his allies in government.
Nelson Mandela stepped down as South African President only after one term though he was legally allowed to stand for another. South Korea President Kim Dae Jung also refused another term and chose to retire. Some leaders just don’t know when to let go.
Perhaps Dr M should direct his comments not only at leaders in Malaysia, but at those in neighboring countries as well.