Dr M’s lies and falsehoods
Many Malaysians have written to say to ignore the ramblings of an old political hack and I agree generally with this strategy.
By Koon Yew Yin, FMT
As most people are aware, the intention of Dr Mahathir Mohamad in writing the piece,’Chinese better off after Merdeka’ for the New Straits Times is not to foster greater political consciousness amongst the Chinese; neither is it to improve inter-racial cooperation among Chinese and Malays.
It is also not meant to provide new ideas on how to transform the country and take it forward so that it can compete with nations such as Singapore which is one of the op-piece’s main targets.
Mahathir’s aim is really to spread alarm and suspicion among the Malays and to stampede them into panic on the political transformation which is taking place among Malaysian Chinese and among all Malaysians.
Part of the recent political transformation among Malaysians is a questioning of what have been the real achievements of the Mahathir era and what sort of legacy he has left the country. This is where Mahathir is evasive or silent, and for good reason.
Numerous studies have shown how despite our progress during the Mahathir years, the country’s economy actually lost ground when compared with Singapore and other countries chiefly because he permitted – many critics say, tacitly encouraged – a culture of high level corruption and wastage on mega projects.
These, together with bad governance, have continued till today and have contributed little to national productivity.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of billions of ringgit was invested in his pet projects which have benefited the selected few and Umno.
Sure, some of the massive wealth derived from the hard earned incomes of citizens and the oil and gas bonanza went to the middle class and professionals. But the greater proportion was siphoned by the coterie of Chinese, Malay and other Malaysian businessmen, politicians and other associates of the BN.
This has led to a situation where Malaysia’s income inequality and illicit financial outflows ranks among the highest in the world, a development which Mahathir refuses to write or talk about, despite the fact that he is happy to provide his two cents worth on practically every subject on Malaysia.
At the same time as Mahathir frittered away our national wealth and failed to lead the nation to compete with our neighbours in the region, he has presided over the lowering of educational standards, the abuse of executive power, and the racialization of the civil service.
Most damaging of all, he has been responsible for breaking up our racial unity and social cohesion carefully built up since independence by the earlier prime ministers through implanting and arousing new racial and political demons in our people.
One demon is that of the alleged Chinese control of the economy. As . Mahathir knows, it is the GLCs and Malays that control the commanding heights of the economy. There is no longer any Chinese control for the simple reason that much of Chinese capital and enterprise have been driven out of the country by the NEP.
