If one were to compile a list of the negative deeds that Mahathir Mohamed has done to Malaysia the list would be impressive indeed. He is without question the most corrupt prime minister in the nation's history with a coterie of well-fed cronies and his own opportunistic sons to plunder the nation's wealth. He completely destroyed the independence of a judiciary which had been admirably independent before his sacking of the Lord President Tun Salleh Abas in 1988. He will also be remembered as "Grand Protector of the Corrupt" for the way he shields corrupt men and women who are loyal to him from persecution. But there is hell to pay for those who cross his path as this despot has shown the world that he can equal Stalin and Hitler in using show trials to crush political enemies. In the Mahathir hall of shame there is no lack of exhibits to disgust generations of Malaysians.
But what of the good deeds Mahathir is supposed to have done. He has been credited as the "Father of Modern Development" as if all the economic progress that the nation has experienced since independence is solely due to him. Let us examine in detail his so-called contributions to the nation and we may come to the startling conclusion that Malaysia has advanced in spite of this despotic prime minister rather than because of him. Economic prosperity is natural and expected in a country whose people have a culture of thrift and hard work. In fact we should ask ourselves how much further we could have progressed without Mahathir. At independence we were on an even keel with Singapore, now we are far, far behind.
Take the National Car Project. It was largely due to Mahathir's insistence that we set up our own car manufacturing plant although such a plant is wholly unnecessary for a small country to develop and industrialize. Economy of scale is difficult to achieve in a small domestic market and in the world market we cannot compete with automobile giants who are technologically far ahead and can manufacture cheaper than us. After more than 15 years, the result of the National Car Project has been to saddle ordinary Malaysians with no choice but to purchase an overpriced, badly built, technologically backward car rather than the wide choices they were used to before the prices of other makes were forced up. We have been hoodwinked into thinking that the national car is a success while all it has achieved is to remove choice and increase costs for consumers. To add insult to injury the national car is sold overseas at a cheaper price than locally so we actually have to subsidize foreign buyers which says plenty about Proton's ability to compete in other markets. Now Proton survives only due to a welter of protective laws and tariffs and even the Asean Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) to remove protective tariffs for cars is seen as a threat to its survival. Hard pressed Malaysians have a right to spit on Mahathir's face for this automotive folly.
So we have the tallest building in the world, built entirely with foreign expertise�so what? Does it make economic sense if the building is more than half empty years after its construction? To Mahathir economic sense does not come into the picture, he built a staggeringly expensive building with public funds to feed his megalomania. His delusion of grandeur extends to the horrendously expensive palace he built for himself in Putrajaya. So extravagant is this structure that the local press and TV have never been allowed to publish any picture of his opulent palace. Perhaps he pictures himself as an emperor who must live in a palace befitting his stature. Actually he deserved a pig sty for his wickedness, corruption and cruelty. Mahathir's plunder of public funds to construct mega structures to feed his insane delusion of greatness is an eloquent statement of his contempt for ordinary Malaysians.
Yet another of Mahathir pet mega project is the totally unnecessary and environmentally destructive Bakun Dam. What is the sense in building a huge ruinously expensive to generate electricity in the jungles of Sarawak which the thinly populated state already has an excess of? It is certainly not for future planning as Sarawak's low electricity growth can be met by alternative sources of electricity generation far more cheaply and efficiently. Indeed this wasteful white elephant project seems to be unceasingly pushed by the prime minister to satisfy his insane longing for big structures as well as to enrich his family and cronies with lucrative contracts. Whether the country can afford the RM15 billion price tag is of no concern to the self-serving Mahathir; mortgaging the future of generations to come is justified as long as his family and cronies have enough to last for generations. Once again we have a modern day pharoah building his pyramids in a vain attempt to put his mark on history and the country pays for his madness.
Mahathir's privatisation program is just an euphemism for milking the citizens to enrich a select few. In each and every instance in which public utilities have been privatised, cost have gone up for consumers, sometimes drastically. Public corporations which used to run a benign monopoly now become greedy private corporations who use their monopolies to force captive consumers to pay more without any improvement in services. And if for some reason the privatised entity fails to reap the expected windfall, the government is ready to step in to compensate it or buy back the business. The case of Indah Water Consortium who took on the national sewerage scheme is a prime example of how privateers can keep the profits if they make it but stand being fully compensated by the government if they don't. After failing to persuade consumers to pay exorbitant sewerage fees for non-existent services, Indah Water was finally sold back to the government for the scandalous sum of RM800 million. Other countries privatise to obtain increased efficiency and lower costs to consumers but Malaysia privatises to enrich the prime minister's bloodsucking cronies at the expense of the tax payers. Mahathir Boleh!
Has this lousy prime minister been a credit to the nation in international affairs? Has he raised the stature of the nation in the world community? On the contrary Mahathir's xenophobic ravings have embarrassed Malaysians time and again. In this modern world of national independence and self-determination, Mahathir's song is stuck firmly in the colonial past of half a century ago as he accuses Western powers of trying to re-colonize Malaysia. Perhaps his intention is to frighten Malaysians to unite under his corrupt leadership by harping on the foreign bogeyman, but it is an old tired trick that he should have stopped insulting Malaysian with long ago This self-styled self-declared leader of the third world is fond of attacking Western countries for imaginative and speculative reasons, a rebel without a cause alienating other leaders with his hypocritical mouth. Now that he has been ostracized by many world leaders, he hobnobs with like minded dictatorial regimes like Cuba, Myanmar and Zimbabwe. One can imagine how much better foreign investments and tourism would have been for Malaysia without this comical leader attacking others. Australian prime minister John Howard felt the brunt of his sharp tongue as Mahathir lashed out with hate-filled, indecorous language at him, claiming to speak for Asian countries. The fact is that Mahathir cannot not even speak for his own country as only his cronies and sycophants share his senseless ravings.
In the field of corruption, Mahathir has no equal in the nation's history. Besides the honorary title of "Grand Protector of the Corrupt", he should also be remembered as "Father of Corruption". It is a well known fact that those who are blindly loyal to Mahathir do not have to pay the price of their corruption even when they are exposed and even when they steal hundreds of millions. Just ask Eric Chia of Perwaja Steel, Ling Liong Sik (now you know why he is such a faithful Mahathir lapdog), Rahim Thamby Chik, Muhamad Taib, Daim Zainuddin and Rafidah Aziz just to name a few. Eusoff Chin the publicly tainted Chief Justice went on an overseas jaunt with a plaintiff's lawyer and was retained by Mahathir despite a public uproar. Meanwhile brave whistle blowers who dare to point the finger at the corrupters are dragged to court and victimized by a subservient judiciary. Mahathir is a shinning example of moral depravity, duplicity and deceit cloaked in outward righteousness. He may be best described as a dunghill covered with flowers.
In the 18 years that he has been in power, Mahathir has grown increasingly bold, blatant and shameless. His coup de grace was his crushing of his deputy Anwar Ibrahim who refused to be an accomplice to Mahathir's abuse and plunder of the economy. For standing in his way, Mahathir abused all the instruments of government to destroy Anwar, plunging the credibility of the judiciary to new lows and shocking Malaysians with his cruelty and ruthlessness. He may as well have imprisoned Anwar for umpteen years under the draconian Internal Security Act which allows for imprisonment without trial but this cunning tyrant preferred to cloak himself with the veneer of righteousness by using kangaroo courts and puppet judges to execute his dirty deeds. He succeeded in his wicked designs but his dark evil showed through the thin veneer that he tried to hide under and he earned for himself utmost contempt from Malaysians and the international community. Only a stupid fool totally out of touch with reality could think his ludicrous show trials would be believed but Mahathir had long been blinded by senility and the corruption of power.
So here we have an arrogant power mad dictator who has done untold harm to the country. He is not one who will willingly step down even when popular feelings have turned against him. He is hypocrisy, cunning, ruthlessness, cruelty and corruption personified. True to his dictatorial spirit he cheated and manipulated elections to cling on to power. Only death can free us from this tyrant but the damage he has wrecked will take generations to undo. When he has passed into the garbage bins of history a public toilet should be built over his grave so that Malaysians can pee on his memory. It will be a fitting tribute to the man who perverted Malaysian society by his pervasive evil.
"Mokhtar, Jaka & Paul"