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Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi has said that former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had "indoctrinated" UMNO party members into "hating DAP (Democratic Action Party)".
The DAP is part of Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, and the largest party in the government.
The multiracial party has been accused of having an "anti-Malay" agenda over the past decades, and the source of it has often been UMNO politicians.
Doctor indoctrination
Zahid, who is the President of UMNO, spent much of the campaign for the recent GE15 election saying that UMNO, and its umbrella coalition Barisan Nasional (BN), would not work with the PH coalition.
But after a disappointing election result, BN found itself facing parliamentary oblivion after coming a distant third behind both PH and the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition.
Free Malaysia Today reported on Zahid's appearance on the "Jawab, Saya Tanya!" (loosely translates to "Can you answer my question?"), an online interview programme where the discussion topic was on political reconciliation.
During the show Zahid pointed the finger at Mahathir , saying he "was the one who indoctrinated us for 22 years", and that it had been Mahathir who had portrayed a negative picture of the DAP.
Mahathir was Malaysian PM from 1981 to 2003, and again from 2018 to 2020. Zahid was a MP under Mahathir, but did not enter government until the the latter had resigned as PM.
Zahid said that BN was just the latest in a long line of parties to have joined hands with PH and the DAP, pointing out that both PN parties, Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS) and Bersatu, had done so in the past.
PN has continued on BN's legacy of questioning DAP's motives.
Bernama, in a report about the same interview, noted that Zahid expressed confidence in the longevity of the governing pact.
He also said that it made more sense for UMNO as PN and UMNO essentially competed for the same type of seat, something that was not an issue with its new PH allies.
Doctor's admission
The accusation that Zahid lays out is actually quite well founded as it is something that Mahathir himself has owned up to in the past.
In 2017, as reported by MalaysiaKini, Mahathir said that he was the one who had demonised the DAP, intentionally growing the perception of the party as "anti-Malay" in order to "sully their image".
But in 2017, he was working with the DAP to overturn the dominance of his former coalition BN, saying that he would not work with the DAP if they were "really a demon".
Reputational recovery
The aftermath of the GE15 election appears to have brought about a mood of political introspection.
Zahid is far from the only politician wanting to cast aside previous positions on parties and politicians.
A special officer to Zahid, Ramesh Rao, has apologised to Anwar for his past comments and rudeness, according to MalaysiaKini.
Rao made the apology as he was starting in the role of an officer in charge of Indian affairs.
He said that he had never thought that Anwar's plans were "brilliant", but admitted to a change of heart now, afters seeing how Anwar becoming PM had led to foreign investors regaining confidence in Malaysia.
He even described Anwar as a "godsent".
DAP leaders were not exempt, with both incumbent and former general-secretaries Anthony Loke and Lim Guan Eng apologising to the Sarawak government in late November 2022.
These apologies are widely seen as allowing relations between PH and Sarawak parties to mend so that both sides could join Anwar's unity government.
One man who is not in a mood to apologise is Mahathir himself, who has now stated that he does not have, nor has he ever had, confidence in Anwar as prime minister.
The more things change, the more things stay the same.
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Top image via Mahathir Mohamad/Facebook & Zahid Hamidi/Facebook