Mahathir’s The Malay Dilemma has become The Malaysian Dilemma
Based on the agreed rates and payments from MAHB, ERL has forecasted revenues of more than RM1 billion per year from next year and RM2.5 billion a year in 2027. This is actually quite substantial considering the entire construction cost of RM2.4 billion was inflated and YTL already made a huge profit on the construction job long ago.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
When Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad wrote The Malay Dilemma in retaliation to May 13 and to him losing the 1969 general election (because the Chinese voted PAS) the book was considered seditious and too racist. So the government banned it and Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman actually wanted to arrest Dr Mahathir but was persuaded to not do so.
In fact, the Member of Parliament for Rawang, Tunku Abdullah Tuanku Abdul Rahman, son to the first Agong, helped hide Dr Mahathir to keep him out of jail. So it is quite puzzling why Dr Mahathir turned out fiercely anti-royalty when it was the royal family that saved his ass. It could be he had always been anti-royalty and this was why he hated Tunku Abdul Rahman.
Anyway, Dr Mahathir’s The Malay Dilemma was fiery and full of venom. The Chinese were very worried when in 1981 Dr Mahathir took over as Malaysia’s Prime Minister and they braced themselves for what lay ahead of them — most probably an ethnic cleansing of Chinese.
Imagine their surprise when Dr Mahathir turned out the greatest friend of the Chinese, or at least to those Chinese capitalists and tycoons. Dr Mahathir handpicked Chinese millionaires and turned them into billionaires. He even gave the Chinese RM3 billion in the mid-1980s when the economic crisis hit Malaysia. (And when the Malays protested he shut their mouths by giving them RM500 million — so he did what he is accusing Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak of doing).
The question is was Dr Mahathir serious about his ‘racism’ and The Malay Dilemma or was he just main wayang? Did he change when he became Prime Minister — just like Anwar Ibrahim changed when he became Deputy Prime Minister — or was he just pretending and was using Malay nationalism as the political platform to get ahead (like Anwar also probably did with his Islamic platform)?
Dr Mahathir has to revisit his The Malay Dilemma of 45 years ago and rewrite the new and revised edition. If not then we will have to assume that he is a fraud and that that book is a fake. And, considering how Machiavellian Dr Mahathir is, the second scenario is probably the more accurate one.
I mean if Dr Mahathir meant what he wrote and said 45 years ago we would not be seeing Dr Mahathir collaborating and conspiring with the Chinese tycoons to rip off the country kau-kau. And then the Chinese whack Article 153 and the New Economic Policy (NEP) when it is the Chinese millionaires who turned into billionaires behind the veil of the NEP.
I mean all you need to do is to take one example (although I can give you 100 examples) — the ERL.
According to a letter from the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) dated 21st August 1997 (reference UPE(S)65/3/5), it refers to a Memorandum from Dr Mahathir that instructs MAHB to pay Express Rail Link Sdn Bhd (ERL) a portion of the airport tax for both domestic and international travellers at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), which also includes KLIA2.
This MAHB payment to ERL starts on the very first day of its operation until the end of the 30-year concession period. This payment is to increase by 10% every five years until the concession ends. This means sooner or later KLIA and KLIA2 will have to increase the airport tax to cover this ever-increasing payment to ERL.
Under the concession agreement, the ERL fare (separate from the airport tax) can be increased to RM97 by the year 2019 and then to RM126 by the year 2024 (compared to RM35 currently and RM55 next year). If this increase is not allowed the government will have to pay billions in compensation to ERL.
Based on the agreed rates and payments from MAHB, ERL has forecasted revenues of more than RM1 billion per year from next year and RM2.5 billion a year in 2027. This is actually quite substantial considering the entire construction cost of RM2.4 billion was inflated and YTL already made a huge profit on the construction job long ago.
Furthermore, there is a provision for YTL to extend the ERL concession for another 30 years, which means they are going to continue to print money long after the YTL bosses are dead and rotting in their graves.
So what was that, again, which Dr Mahathir wrote and said in 1970? Or was that just a whole load of bullshit meant for a purely Malay audience who would help make him Prime Minister?
