More To The Tycoons-Mahathir Relationships Than Meets The Eye
It is not wrong to say that behind a great number of business tycoons in Malaysia, there is a 96-year old former premier who, during his 22 years + 22 months terms in office, has facilitated the easing of business ventures of his cronies. Perhaps we should disclose more of such juicy details in days to come. After all, the above scandals and bailouts make the 1MDB scandal now seems like child’s play.
By Azizi Khan in Melbourne, Australia and Hasnah Abdul Rahman in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, New Malaysia Herald
When the article appeared about the tirade Lee Kim Yew of Country Heights fame made against the organisers of the World Chinese Economic Forum (WCEF) led by chairperson Cheah Chyuan Yong and their invitation to former premier Najib Razak to present the keynote address during the forum, we were led into researching the relationship between Lee and another former premier, Mahathir Mohamad.
Lo and behold, search engines being an effective tool to lead us on to other searches, we were led to some very interesting discoveries which we were aware of, but may have slipped our minds. Recent events have triggered the need to explore these further.
While the after-effects of the forum made it seem like a proxy war between Cheah-Najib versus Lee-Mahathir, we were led into looking at the intimate business relationship between Mahathir and another tycoon, Vincent Tan of Berjaya fame. This seems like a who’s-who and what’s-what of cronyism practices gone overboard.
Duo Proposes Controversial Plan To Privatize Malaysian River – screamed the Wall Street Journal headline of 04 July 1996 describing the business relationship between Mahathir and Vincent and the latter’s partner, David Chew Keat Soon.
Mahathir privatised Malaysia’s sewerage system to Vincent, using Indah Water, and then bailed it out when failed.
In fact, Mahathir actually privatised our Klang River to Vincent and his partner David Chew for 99 years to build the 10 million square feet KL Linear City.
Yes, our shit water and rivers were privatised by Mahathir to Vincent.
