40 Years, Ten Thousand Mountains And Rivers: Anwar Wishes Dr Mahathir Happy 101st

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If Malaysian politics had a Cantonese theme song, it might well be legendary Hong Kong actress and singer Liza Wang’s 万水千山总是情 — a ballad about a bond that survives storm after storm, yet never quite heals.

Few relationships fit that mould better than the one between Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim: mentor and protégé, then bitter rivals, then uneasy allies, and now rivals again.

The latest, quieter chapter came this week.

On Tun Dr Mahathir’s 101st birthday, the Prime Minister posted a short message on Facebook.

“Selamat ulang tahun kelahiran yang ke-101 buat Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Semoga Tun terus dilimpahi rahmat, kesihatan yang baik, dan berada dalam keberkatan-Nya, Insya-Allah. (“Happy 101st birthday to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. May Tun continue to be blessed with mercy, good health, and remain under His grace, God willing.”)

Anwar didn’t dwell on the decades of history between them — the post was brief, accompanied by just two photographs: one recent image of Dr Mahathir in a wheelchair greeting well-wishers, and an older black-and-white photo of the two men seated together in what appears to be a more informal, lighter moment from their earlier years in government.

No further commentary, no reflection on the feud or the reconciliation — just the wish, and the pictures left to speak for themselves.

From Heir Apparent to Enemy of the State (1982–1998)

Anwar’s rise inside UMNO was swift: he held several key ministerial posts through the 1980s before becoming Deputy Prime Minister in 1993, cementing his status as Dr Mahathir’s chosen successor.

For over a decade, the two were widely portrayed as a political father-and-son pairing, though specific personal anecdotes from that era remain largely undocumented and should be read with caution.

The bond fractured during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, as sharp policy disagreements between the two men escalated through 1998.

That September, Dr Mahathir sacked Anwar from all government and party posts. Anwar was arrested soon after and charged with corruption and sodomy — charges he denied as politically motivated.

Images of him appearing in public with a black eye ignited the Reformasi movement and led to the founding of what later became PKR.

Accounts of a private confrontation between the two men before the sacking circulate widely, but no independently corroborated record of that exact exchange exists.

Eighteen Years of Silence, Then a Handshake (1998–2016)

From 1998 to 2016, the two men had no direct personal contact, avoiding each other even at public events.

That changed abruptly on 5 September 2016, when Dr Mahathir made an unannounced visit to the Kuala Lumpur High Court, where Anwar — still in custody — was attending a case.

The two shook hands for the first time in 18 years, widely reported as a symbolic breaking of the ice, as both men were moving toward a shared political goal: unseating then-Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak over the 1MDB scandal.

The reconciliation was formalised under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, which pulled off a historic election win in 2018.

Dr Mahathir became prime minister for a second time, and Anwar received a full royal pardon, with an understanding that Dr Mahathir would eventually hand over the premiership.

The promised handover never materialised on a firm timeline, and Dr Mahathir’s abrupt resignation in February 2020 triggered the “Sheraton Move” crisis, keeping Anwar out of power for two more years.

Where Things Stand Now

Anwar became Malaysia’s Prime Minister in November 2022.

Dr Mahathir, now well into his second century of life, remains a vocal but largely sidelined figure in mainstream politics.

Their relationship has since deteriorated into legal confrontation, with Dr Mahathir filing a defamation suit against Anwar — the latest chapter in a rivalry that has now outlasted most of the political careers built around it.

Basically, whenever Dr Mahathir criticises Anwar’s government — like accusing him of “giving away” Malaysia’s independence through a trade deal — Anwar just shrugs it off, telling reporters that people shouldn’t take the 100-year-old’s comments too seriously, since he’s relying on outdated or incorrect information.

Dr Mahathir, on the other hand, has continued to attack Anwar’s leadership directly, most notably in court testimony in his own RM150 million defamation case, in which he claimed Malays are “losing power” because the government is dominated by non-Malay interests.

Yet in a rare moment of vulnerability, Dr Mahathir told TIME magazine that he regrets how harshly he treated Anwar, even as he accused his old protégé of holding a grudge and “seeking revenge” over the failed 2020 handover.

Wang’s ballad’s central image of a bond enduring despite 10,000 mountains and waters between two people, Dr Mahathir and Anwar’s story suggests that some ties, however strained, are never quite fully severed.

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40 Years, Ten Thousand Mountains And Rivers: Anwar Wishes Dr Mahathir Happy 101st
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