Sunday, November 29, 2009
Mahathir – a living “monument of shame”
If anything, this controversial new book entitled “Malaysian Maverick – Mahathir Mohamad in turbulent time” depicts that true to his motto of (Sapu) Bersih, Cekap (Menyorok), (Tidak) Amanah “clean (sweep), efficient (in siphoning), (not) trustworthy”, the former premier had in his 22-year-rule caused or contributed to a sizeable amount of the nation’s wealth been siphoned off.
But having said that, no one should treat what has been written in this book as the gospel truth. In the mean time, Tun M should promptly file a defamation suit against the writer of the book, if what has been written was baseless and a complete lie.
Failing which, he would be as guilty as charged. What say you?
Mahathir squandered RM100 bil, says new book
Courtesy of Malaysiakini.
Malaysia has squandered an estimated RM100 billion on financial scandals under the 22-year rule of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, according to a new book about the former prime minister.
According to Barry Wain, author of the soon-to-be launched ‘Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times’, direct financial losses amounted to about RM50 billion.
This doubled once the invisible costs, such as unrecorded write-offs, were taken into account. The RM100 billion total loss was equivalent to US$40 billion at then prevailing exchange rates.
Barry, who is a former editor of the Asian Wall Street Journal, says most of the scams, which included a government attempt to manipulate the international tin price and gambling by Bank Negara on global currency markets, occurred in the 1980s.
‘Malaysian Maverick’ is the first independent, full-length study of Mahathir, who retired in 2003 after more than two decades as premier. The book will be published globally next week by Palgrave Macmillan.
Wain writes that the Mahathir administration, which took office in 1981 with the slogan, “clean, efficient, trustworthy”, was almost immediately embroiled in financial scandals that “exploded with startling regularity”.
By the early 1990s, he says, cynics remarked that it had been “a good decade for bad behaviour, or a bad decade for good behaviour”.
Secret military deal with US
The book also reveals that:
* Mahathir, despite his nationalistic rants, signed a secret security agreement with the United States in 1984 that gave the Americans access to a jungle warfare training school in Johor and allowed them to set up a small-ship repair facility at Lumut and a plant in Kuala Lumpur to repair C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.
* Mahathir used a secret fund of his ruling Umno to turn the party into a vast conglomerate with investments that spanned almost the entire economy.
* Mahathir’s Umno financed its new Putra World Trade Centre headquarters in Kuala Lumpur partly with taxpayers money, by forcing state-owned banks to write off at least RM140 million in interest on Umno loans.
Wain, who is now a writer-in-residence at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, however credits Mahathir with engineering the country’s economic transformation, deepening industrialisation and expanding Malaysia’s middle class.
But Mahathir had undermined state institutions, permitted the spread of corruption and failed to provide for Malaysia’s future leadership, he says.
Posted by Ronnie Klassen at 4:37 AM
84 COMMENTS:
Roxy said...
You are definitely right about this. It all started from him. Oh, the shame.
November 29, 2009 5:55 AM
Anonymous said...
before i can comment i read the book 1st..
But a brief comments on the topic..
I agreed that Mahathir is a maverick politician who contributed to the development of the whole malaysia.Even if there are some rogue adiministrator-who cannot blamed the whole mess on Mahathir..
I Still respect him because he is one malaysia who dare stand up against all the super power or the so called world police force & imperial expension by those power -exploiting third world countries and other modern coutries as well..
White Dragon..hahaha
November 29, 2009 6:32 AM
Roxy said...
Wish I could be Prime Minister. I would have to be tough and evil like Hitler if I have to reverse all the things that Mahathir have done. Too bad, I already failed the first criteria: I'm a Chinese.
November 29, 2009 6:43 AM
Anonymous said...
Another product of UMNO. Don't know if he is a bugis or jawa descendent. But judging from the crooked nose, it seems none of the above. What say me? Descendent from the country between Malaysia and Israel, so to speak. Another one who has his own motherland. I've to read the book first. But some things done by him were very obvious. For instance, the Project IC mahathir. That cannot be denied. But, I also like to read the book by Shannon Ahmad called SHIT. Chemically speaking, I don't know the reaction of these two books if to be put side by side. For me, one doesn't have to praise a leader so much. Especially if he let a dangerous virus called corruption to creep in. And then the 'bailing out' disease.
If there is a form to be filled in, in order to become a prime minister, I wouldn't hesitate to try my luck. As long as you have Petronas, it would be very simple. 1 percent for our own pocket is enough already. During the assembly sitting, even the 'kekebalan diraja' can be amended, let alone the ordinary rakyat. The prime minister just sat there and produce his own way of thinking, bla bla bla, then all became part of the law. Including the pengerusi UMNO tidak boleh ditanding. So, funny ah. Like we own Malaysia. No wonder the book says SHIT because all are bullshit. Starting from the mouth to the rear, all are SHIT.
November 29, 2009 7:19 AM
Anonymous said...
This is a nation where freedom fighter like Chin Peng is being labelled as a traitor and banished from his own country, but crook of the highest degree like Mahathir is being treated as a national hero and was conferred with the title of 'Tun', which is a real insult to the thinking Malaysians.
Ronnie, you've again nailed it right on the spot by calling Mahathir a "living monument of shame".
I pray & hope & would suggest that if Pakatan Rakyat comes to power one day, they would put Mahathir and all his accomplices who pilfered our nation's wealth on trial. Upon conviction, not only that they should be put in jail but all their properties and cash too should be seized and return to the nation's coffer.
All those convicted should then be inducted into the "Malaysian Hall of Shame" complete with their statues (with slipper garland) for public to curse them. Mahathir and his accomplices should also be featured in the textbook for moral studies in public schools, in order to teach our future generations on the shame of being rogue leaders.
Che Madiba
November 29, 2009 12:59 PM
http://advocateviews.blogspot.com/2009/11/mahathir-living-monument-of-shame.html
