The struggle is indeed real for former Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad. Police have withdrawn his personal bodyguard service that had been provided by the Special Action Unit (UTK) department as protection since he left office.
This comes a year after the ruling government in Putrajaya decided to terminate contracts providing services of a personal cook and office assistant for the nonagenarian, former leader.
“Today, the services of UTK were withdrawn. The struggle continues,” Mahathir, chairman of the opposition front, Pakatan Harapan, wrote on his personal Facebook page.
Since the former premier began attending anti-government rallies, his police outriders were also withdrawn. At the time, former inspector-general of police, Khalid Abu Bakar, told him that he would need to apply for police escorts, and could only use them for official government functions, on a case-by-case basis.
He added that it made no sense to provide him police escorts if he was just going to anti-government rallies with them.
Khalid had previously allowed Mahathir to retain a personal bodyguard, who was a policeman from UTK, for his own safety.
Social media users sympathized with the 92-year-old, saying that the move was “petty” and that a former-PM of his age should have the courtesy of a security detail.
To be fair, how much does it cost these days to hire your own guard? Do we need to get a Kickstarter account going, guys?
Politics, baby. It’s election time and the kid gloves are coming off. The former prime minister has certainly played the game himself, but can he handle being on the receiving end? We’ll see. It’s certainly heating up!
