92 Years Old Dr Mahathir Mohamad Makes Sworn in as World's Oldest Leader

Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad محضير بن محمد

Born in 10th July 1925 (20th December 1925 ?), Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in on 10th May 2018 as the world's oldest elected leader after a stunning win that swept Malaysia's establishment from power after more than six decades.
The swearing-in ceremony took place at the royal palace in Kuala Lumpur on the same night and he became the country's seventh prime minister.

Events, Facts and and Timeline of Mahathir Mohamad

• Born in the year 1925 in Alor Setar, the capital of the state of Kedah, British Malay.
• Father : Mohamad bin Iskandar, an Indian Muslim and a teacher by profession.
• Mother : Wan Tempawan Wan Hanapi
• Married with Siti Hasmah Ali (1956) , a fellow medical student
• Children : Maizura Mahathir, Marina Mahathir, Mazhar Mahathir, Melinda Mahathir, Mirzan Mahathir, Mokhzani Mahathir, Mukhriz Mahathir
• Education : graduated from secondary school by completing Senior Cambridge exams in December 1946 and entered the King Edward VII College of Medicine in Singapore in 1947

Some other facts 

He became the oldest world leader when he was sworn into office as Prime minister of Malaysia on May 10, 2018, 15-years after retirement. He was previously also the Prime Minister of Malaysia during a period from July 1981 to October 2003.
A Physician by profession he is also known by his nickname  Dr M.
He wrote a book named The Malay Dilemma which was published in 1970, after loosing election. In his book he advocated Malay Right.
In his era Malaysia has become a major trading and economic force in the region.

Timeline

• 1946 - joined the United Malays National Organization (UMNO)
• 1964 - elected to Parliament for the first time
• 1969 - lost in election and suspended from the UMNO
• 1972 - returned back to UMNO
• 1973 - appointed as a Senator in the Parliament
• 1974 - elected as Education Minister
• 1976 - became the Deputy Prime Minister
• 1981 - in July elected as the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia and kept additional charges to Home Ministry and Law & Justice
• 1989 - in January had heart bypass surgery
• 1998 - had dismissed his deputy Anwar Ibrahim accused him of sodomy and corruption
• 2002 - announced his retirement plan
• 2003 - on the day October 16 he claimed that Jews rule the world by proxy in a 57-nation Islamic Summit which was organized in Malaysia, which was largely condemned and criticized worldwide . On 31st October he retired and elevated his deputy Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
• 2007 - in September he had another heart bypass surgery following two consecutive heart attack in 10 months
• 2008 - in the Month of May Malaysian Government had initiated an investigation into corruption by Mahathir administration in 1980s and in 1990s. He resigned from the UMNO on May 19
• 2013 - on December 1 he had stepped down as an adviser from Petronas due to ill health
• 2016 - on March 30 resigned as Chairman of the Board from Proton Holdings, the leading Car Manufacturer of the country, which was founded by Magathir in 1983 as the sole National auto company.
• 2018 - Mahathir was chosen as prime ministerial candidate of the united oppositions . When he told that the country's interest was being suffered under the leadership of the Prime Minister Najib Razak. 
• May 9, 2018 - Coalition of opposition parties under the leadership of Mahathir won 121 seats in the Parliament which was the comfortable majority to form the Government.
• May 10, 2018 - Mahathir was sworn into office as Prime Minister by the Kimg Muhammad V.  the constitutional Head of Malaysia.

Mahathir after winning election

                           

 Historic Verdict

Most of the people who follow International Politics along with people of Malaysia are quite surprised on the news that the Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) coalition of four parties has won a simple majority. It is a earth-shattering news that the Barisan Nasional (National Front) Government that had ruled Malaysia for 61 years is now in opposition.
In addition to the rejection of the past government on issues that include the IMDB scandal, three key trends can be discerned from this elections, which was orderly and surprisingly quite on the polling day. The Malaysian electorate has become much more mature, learning to be cautious and yet hold in voting for change.

First Trend : 

UNMO has traditionally depended upon the rural vote for its support and its other partners MCA (Malaysia Chinese Association), MIC (Malaysia Indian Congress) and Gerakan (People's Movement Party) are mainly to bolster the urban vote.
This time Gerakan loses all seats and the other two MCA and MIC have also wiped out with no major wins.

Second Trend :

PAS, the Islamic party that focuses largely on religion, dropped three Parliamentary, but interestingly took back the East Coast State of Trengganu, so that it once again controls two states Kelatan and Trengganu. The PAS support amounted to 2.01 million or 16,88 per cent of total votes cast, an increase compared with 1.63 million votes or 14.78 per cent in 2013.
What the rise of Pakatan means is that urban Malay voters had voted for change of government and improvement in economic livelihood rather than voting along religious affiliations. Non-Malay voters, on the other hand, were put off by PAS's push for hudud laws and were uncomfortable with UNMO's flirting with PAS on areas touching on religion.

Third Trend :

The new government has the opportunity to engage in generational renewal by bringing in younger leaders from more diverse backgrounds into positions of authority. Time is of the essence, as Dr Mahathir has promised to stay on as Prime Minister for two years, before passing the baton to Anwar Ibrahim (71 ). Nothing would signal more the restoration of the rule of law than the immediate release of Ibrahim from jail.  

Mahathir's supporters in cheering mood

Alliance of Hope

Strange things are happening in Malaysia ; strange things sometimes do. At the ripe of age of 92, the very election of Dr. Mahathir Mohammad  as the world's oldest Prime Minister signifies what in judicial terminology is the rarest of the rare , in the political narrative. That development was reinforced on Friday (11th May, 2018) with yet another spin on the country's election drama when he announced plans for a royal pardon for Anwar Ibrahim - the former ally who was sacked and jailed when Mahathir was previously in power and who could now become his successor.

Jailed Anwar Ibrahim is set to release

There is no doubt that royalty has readily concurred with his plan of action, one that reaffirms the truism that there are no permanent enemies in politics. Mahathir said

The king has indicated he is willing to pardon Anwar immdiately. We will begin the proper process of obtaining a pardon.

This means a full pardon. He should be released immediately when he is pardoned.

Malaysia today bears witness to a quirk of history, if ever there was one. Indeed , the unlikely alliance of Mahathir and Anwar has been one of the many odd aspects of the election  
           

Final Thought

Theoretically, Mahathir's election had posited him to effect what in political science is called the

second act in politics

If indeed Anwar Ibrahim helms the government in due course of time, Mahathir will sacrifice the chance to right the wrongs that he was responsible for.
The alliance, that Dr. Mahathir now leads, was originally formed to oppose his own autocratic rule. He has let it be known that he will assume power, - only to hand it over to a 'former apprentice' who was jailed after the two fell out and still remains behind bars.
It is difficult to fathom the intricacies of the twists and turns of Malaysia's politics. Suffice to register that the country is on the turn.    
   

Who are the Stakeholders of Violations of Human Rights in Syria

Representative Photo by Mubariz Mehdizadeh on Unsplash

Quite sometime before the conflict started 7 years ago a large number of Syrians were protesting against unemployment, corruption and a lack of political freedom under President Bashar-al-Asaad, who succeeded his late father Hafez in 2000. A peaceful uprising against the president Asaad in 2011, turned into full scale civil war. The BBC has reported on March 15 2018 that the war has left about 400,000 people dead, devastated cities and drawn in other countries.

The history of Syria is replete with accounts of outsiders who fought one another, such as the Egyptians, Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Macedonians and Romanians. Like India, Syria suffered as much as it benefited from such foreign intruders. But today visuals of the death of helpless children in Syria must make one reflect on how to put an end to this bloodbath in what is essentially a battle of attrition.

Ongoing War

Under the pretext of waging a holy war against ISIS, forces loyal to Assad in eastern Ghouta have perpetrated mass killings. As Amnesty International stated

flagrant war crimes

are being committed in eastern Ghouta and on an

epic scale

A humanitarian tragedy is unfolding.In collusion with the Assad regime and Iran, eastern Ghouta, a cluster of concrete-block towns and farmland with an estimated population of nearly 400,000, has been reduced to pulverized rubble, dismembered bones and dust mixed with blood. The region is bearing the brunt because it happens to be one of the last bastions of the rebels fighting the Assad government. In response to the airstrikes, the rebels have shelled the government-held neighborhood of Damascus.

Game of manslaughter

Civilians, including helpless children, are just prawns in a bigger game of attrition. The assault on Aleppo was mounted to chase the Syrian opposition forces to other areas, like the province of Idlib,

which the Russians and Syrians have also bombarded. The rebels who were thus hounded out have been largely exterminated in eastern Ghouta. It has essentially been a choreographed game of manslaughter. It bears recall that eastern Ghouta had been attacked by chemical weapons in 2013.

Many Players with much of Business Interest

 

Energy War

 
Russia's objective apparently was to control only the part inhabited by the Assad's supporters, who are by and large Muslim Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. The Sunni Muslims of Saudi Arabia and Qatar on the one hand and Shiite Muslims of Iran and Syria on the other are ranged between each other. This has to be explained in terms of compulsions of the energy war.- to secure not only the European market but also the South-east Asia given the energy requirements of China, India and Pakistan. Iran, rich both in oil and natural gas, has an edge over Saudi Arabia, rich only in oil and Qatar rich only in natural gas.

ISIS, Pipeline and Russia and Geopolitical Issues

ISIS has also been used at cross purposes because its presence and control of the eastern part of Syria and the western part of Iraq could effectively block the Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline, affecting the flow of Saudi oil and Qatari natural gas. A strong neighbor like anti Assad Turkey is beholden to pro-Assad Russia. It is dependent on the latter's natural gas . While the Saudis are turning to Egypt to cobble up an Arab alliance, the later has moved closer to Russia after the Arab Spring. It is peeved over the American acceptance of the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt, a move supported by Turkey, Qatar and Iran. The Iranian pipeline, materialized in its present form, will reduce both Turkey's revenues and its geopolitical significance. In fact, the proposed pipeline has been packaged as the largest gas pipeline in the Middle East; it will stretch from Iran's gas-rich South Pars field to the Mediterranean coastline in Lebanon, via Iraq and Syria. It also happens to be a major bone of contention. Syria has been at the center through which Europe seeks to reduce its reliance on Russia, as 80 per cent of the gas that the Russian state-controlled company Gazprom produces is sold to Europe. Russia's involvement in the war in Syria is more out of concern of losing out to other US allies like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Russia has earlier gone to war in Georgia and Ukraine to disrupt plans to export gas from other parts of the Middle East.              

Before the civil war, two competing pipelines, that were laid by Qatar and Iran, were meant to transport gas to Europe through Syria. Though Qatar, the reservoir of the largest natural gas field in the world, owns about two third of the resources. It cannot capitalize on it fully because it relies on tankers to deliver it to other nations and this makes its gas more expensive than Russia's. Qatar's plan, first put forward in 2009, to build a pipeline from the Persian Gulf via Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Turkey, was opposed by Assad  who had denied permission for the pipeline to run through his territory. This might have been prompted by Russia, which was eager to safeguard its own business. Iran's counter plan, signed by Assad in 2012, had Russia's blessings because it could use Iran against Qatar, a US ally hosting a US air base. While an enraged Qatar is believed to have funded anti-Assad rebel groups by $3 billion between 2011 and 2013 alongside Saudi Arabia, Iran was believed to be helping Assad by running the Syrian Army, supplying with weapons and even troops. So all the stakeholders - Russia, the US, Qatar,Arabia,Iran and Turkey pretending to fight against the ISIS or supporting or opposing Assad have vested interests and any pretension to fight a holy war is only for the birds.

People and Children are being killed - No concern

The death of hapless children in Syria is the outcome of the internecine power struggle. More than 11000 children were killed in November 2013 most of them by Chemical Weapon as reported in naharnet on 24 November 2013.

PC Naharnet

Syria, one of the most heavy weight Middle Eastern allies of the Soviet Union during Hafez-al-Assad's rule, formalized its alliance in the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation in 1980. Saudi Arabia has been firmly entrenched under the United States' security umbrella and this can be traced to the time of World War II. It had always been deeply distrustful of the Soviet Union and had been wary of the invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979.

The US and Russia Cold War

Syria had stood by revolutionary Iran throughout the later's eight year war against Iraq, while Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini openly involved the masses to overthrow the Saudi monarchy. As things stand. there is now a sharp competition between Russia and the US, almost reminiscent of the Cold War. This has been the major stumbling block towards peace in Syria. And as the war in Afghanistan had less to do with removal of Taliban, the war in Syria has become a battle field to secure access to sources of energy. It had begun as a concerted move to drive out ISIS.

In their Chilling report on April 3 2017 the Independent claims that
US-led coalition killed more Syrian civilians than Isis or Russia in March, figures show

PC Independent

 

Conclusion

To quote an old dictum,

There can be no (Arab-Israel) war without Egypt and no peace without Syria,

In Syria, various stakeholders are working at cross-purposes. Russia's main concern is to persuade the international community to allow Assad to remain in power. The United States and its allies are unsure and seen to be on shaky ground. But the distressing reality is that Russia, Iran and Syria are not going to desist without suitable economic, military and diplomatic pressure being exerted on the presidential palace in Damascus.