Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s civil suit against Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, is likely to open its own Pandora’s Box and expose old wounds.

The toxicity of Malaysian politics continues as realpolitik precedes politics of morality, ideology and service.

Since becoming Prime Minister over six months ago, one of Anwar’s favourite mantras was accusing Dr Mahathir of stealing billions of ringgit from state coffers to enrich himself and his children.

Maybe he thought that with him being the numero uno,
the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance, Dr Mahathir would be cowed into submissions. Or at the very least to pipe down.

Now that Dr Mahathir had responded positively to his allegation, his lawyers are putting him to shame. They had twice asked for more time to make their submission.

Dr Mahathir’s supporters are having a field day lampooning him while his supporters are finding it increasingly difficult to continue flogging his decades old claims that he has boxes of incriminating evidence against Dr Mahathir.

In April Dr Mahathir had given the Prime Minister a two-week extension but in May, his lawyers asked the court for a further two weeks but was objected to by Dr Mahathir, who wanted the trial to proceed without further delay.

I’m not surprised if the Prime Minister’s lawyers are now finding difficulty to present their opening defense. In particular how to position Anwar’s claim that he has “boxes of documents” to prove Dr Mahathir’s guilt.

It may not be about him not having the alleged documents but rather having them. Some of these documents could be “Rahsia Besar” that he wasn’t supposed to have in his custody when he was dismissed from the Cabinet in 1998.

But in the last 25 years, he has been repeatedly claiming that he has boxes upon boxes of official documents on Dr Mahathir’s alleged corruption, cronyism and nepotism.

Back in 1999, I wrote in my Other Thots column in the New Sunday Times newspaper to comment on claims by Anwar’s former political secretary, Mohamad Ezam Mohd Nor.

Even before he was removed from the government in early September 1998, Ezam had already been trumpeting that his then boss had six boxes of government documents hidden away overseas.

In that article, I said, among other things, that Ezam’s claim should be  taken seriously. I said:

“Elsewhere, a person like the Parti Keadilan Nasional’s Youth Chief would have been detained, or at the very least hauled up for interrogation by the security agencies.”

“Whatever Anwar’s excuse for doing so, his action is a serious breach of the law and threat to the security of the country. These documents can be used by foreign elements to undermine the country.”

Dr Mahathir, who was then the Prime Minister, when asked by the Press in Negeri Sembilan said, it was up to Anwar what he wanted to do with the documents.

He speculated that Anwar would seek the support of foreign media if the government were to take action against him under the Official Secrets Act.

No such action had been taken against him but that hasn’t stopped him and his supporters from flogging the “six boxes” from time to time.

I would have thought that he would either persist or desist with the threat of using the alleged incriminating  information once he became Prime Minister.

He could bring back those Pandora’s Boxes and use them to punish the wrongdoers and, who knows, recover the billion he said were stolen from the country.

More than six months had past and he didn’t. Instead he continues with the same old mantra of accusing Dr Mahathir of enriching himself and his children.

Dr Mahathir, on his part, had repeatedly invited Anwar to prove his allegations but to no avail.

Now with Dr Mahathir having gone to court to sue him, his lawyers appeared to be in difficulty to even submit their primarily defense.

If and when this civil suit goes to trial, the respondent will almost certainly be compelled to produce his “six boxes” of documents as proof. We will then see whether they are a myth or reality.