BETWEEN AUTOCRATIC AND NOT UP TO THE STANDARD

I had short conversation with a few old friends during tea break today. This one particular friend had been praising the current PM for allowing his ministers to speak out of their mind so freely unlike during the 22 years reign of PM Mahathir. He said PM Mahathir had run his cabinet ministers so autocraticly that nobody were allowed to speak.

Hmmm.... this particular friend must be a true believer of Malaysiakini, a convert of Karpalism or idolising the erected Anwar's giant cutout statue in Batu Caves.

Please bear in mind that during PM Mahathir reign, non of his cabinet ministers ever come close to his standard. During the cabinet meetings, most of them couldn't answer the questions thrown by Mahathir to them. They couldn't speak up because either they were not prepared of they were caught wrong footed.

Those days when Singapore was still in the Federation, there were 8 maverick MPs from Singapore. They were very smart and very sharp, and of course one of them was Lee Kuan Yew. The only MPs that can argue with them were Dr. Mahathir and Dr. Ismail (the late Tun Dr. Ismail).

Ask if any of the present cabinet ministers to be at par with Dr. Mahathir, Dr. Ismail and Lee Kuan Yew. The answer is none.

So, if you could not even come close to the standard of Tun Dr. Mahathir, don't blame him if you could not speak up your mind to him.