KUALA LUMPUR - Months after his disastrous defeat in Malaysia’s 2022 General Election, former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad is still in the dark over why voters rejected him.
Expressing sadness over the turn of events, Tun Dr Mahathir insisted he had not done anything wrong towards voters on the duty-free island of Langkawi, in Kedah, where he failed to retain his parliamentary seat.
“I was voted out and lost 14,000 votes. I do not know what I did wrong. What did I do?” English-language daily New Straits Times quoted him as saying.
In the Nov 19 national polls, Dr Mahathir – Malaysia’s longest-serving premier – secured just 4,566 votes and lost his deposit, as Perikatan Nasional’s Suhaimi Abdullah garnered 25,463 votes.
It was the 98-year-old’s first defeat in Malaysia’s parliamentary elections since he lost in 1969.
Dr Mahathir admitted that the results were “a little upsetting”, especially since he had done a lot to develop the island. “I’m not sulking, but I did a lot for Langkawi.”
Dr Mahathir’s loss came despite widespread appreciation for his contributions to Langkawi.
He is widely respected for bringing prosperity and development to the island by declaring it a duty-free haven in 1987, when he was prime minister. The move drew a slew of tourism investments, including an international airport, ferry services and luxury hotels.
The loss dealt a final blow to Dr Mahathir’s Parti Pejuang Tanah Air, which lost in all the 121 parliamentary seats that it contested nationwide.
Voters were unconvinced by Dr Mahathir’s promise to repair the country’s economy and bring back foreign investments and jobs by eradicating corruption within the government and cleaning up some RM42 billion (S$12.9 billion) in national debt racked up by former prime minister Najib Razak.
There were also voters who had grown disenchanted with Dr Mahathir’s leadership after he resigned as premier in 2020 and failed to hand over the reins of government to current prime minister Anwar Ibrahim as promised.
Days after his shocking defeat, Dr Mahathir said that he would turn to writing about his country’s history.
