Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times, Barry Wain [best mystery novels of all time .txt] 📗

been derailed by a gentleman's agreement, an "understanding" with Dr. Mahathir that became a misunderstanding. Now it was Dr. Mahathir's turn. It was not so much a case of teaching an old dog new tricks, as an old dog forgetting his tricks as he aged.

Dr. Mahathir took the view that while it was Abdullah's prerogative to add new elements, it was unacceptable for him to abandon a major policy or project already in place. "The style may change, but what was undertaken before should be carried out," he said.[45] For his part, Abdullah said it was "unrealistic to assume that I would let everything run on autopilot after becoming prime minister". Apart from challenges that keep changing, "there are also things that I wanted to implement for the country which may not have been a priority when he was prime minister", Abdullah said. Fortified by his huge election victory, "I think I have the people's approval to lead in the manner I believe will best benefit the country".[46]

The Dr. Mahathir confronting Abdullah was vastly different from the master politician the country had known for almost a quarter of a century. Apart from being an adviser to four government-linked concerns — Petronas, the Langkawi Development Authority and the Tioman Island Development Authority, as well as Proton — Dr. Mahathir lacked a power base and was 78 when he retired. His inability to acknowledge the nature of political power, that it flowed from the office and not the individual, was not a little sad considering how effortlessly he had once wielded power. Throughout his political life, he had been obsessed with perpetuating his own power, telling Hong Kong-based Asiaweek in 1997, "If you don't have power and you put out a very reasonable proposal, nobody will implement it. You have to have power."[47] Now, he was unable or unwilling to accept that power had passed to someone else. Dr. Mahathir was particularly hurt that his former cabinet members had switched their allegiance to Abdullah and endorsed alternative ideas, predictable in many a political system and completely consistent with Malay culture. "I thought they supported me because of what I was doing for the country," he said. "Now I know they supported me because I was prime minister." After complaining about being stabbed in the back, he said of Abdullah, "I chose him and I expected a degree of gratefulness."

In one crucial respect, though, it was the same old Dr. Mahathir: His way was still the only way. As he said, he had risked his neck in 1969 to point out that Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman was "definitely doing something wrong", and it was disappointing that nobody in UMNO now was prepared to take a risk and speak out against practices that were "obviously wrong".[48] Even as a "pensioner", as the Sultan of Johore scorned him, Dr. Mahathir assumed that he should be the sole judge of what was wrong for Malaysia. Musa Hitam, the first of the deputies, joked that Dr. Mahathir was suffering from PMS — "post-prime ministerial syndrome" — causing him to think that "only he is right".[49]

In his sustained, frontal attack on Abdullah, Dr. Mahathir implicitly invited further examination of his own record, "to bring the magnifying glass to the collateral damage of his economic policies during his years in office", as academic Shamsul Amri Baharuddin said.[50] Or, as Karpal Singh, the opposition warhorse, put it, "I say those who live in glasshouses should not undress without drawing the curtains."[51] As always, Dr. Mahathir was fearless. No topic was taboo, despite its potential to rebound on him, and he was offended by repeated allegations "that the administration during my time was worse".[52] Dr. Mahathir's conviction and certitude were intact, but without the levers of state and party power to impose his views, his words echoed impotently.

The architect of Malaysia's mega-projects and duty supervisor for several world-class financial scandals dared accuse the budget-conscious Abdullah administration of wastage. The government's decision not to go ahead with half a bridge to Singapore had caused losses amounting to billions, Dr. Mahathir said. "This is the people's money."[53] He also portrayed the disturbing crime rate as part of the rot that had set in under Abdullah, a claim disproved by the royal commission into the police force, which found it was the most corrupt of all government departments and long incapable of protecting the public.[54]

Equally audacious was Dr. Mahathir's persistent targeting of Abdullah's businessman son Kamaluddin, and aspiring politician son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin, both in their 30s, suggesting vast influence peddling. Oxford-educated Khairy, deputy leader of UMNO Youth, had worked as an adviser to the prime minister, but left to join an investment bank in which he bought a 3 per cent share. Dr. Mahathir said Kamaluddin's Scomi had RM1 billion of contracts with state companies, while Khairy, with no official position, had to approve all business proposals submitted to the government. Abdullah, Dr. Mahathir declared, would "pay the price" for turning the country into a "family business".[55] His accusations forced Abdullah to go on television to deflect charges of corruption and nepotism, an awkward position for Mr. Clean. Abdullah also said, "The projects awarded to Dr. Mahathir's children were far bigger than what Scomi received", a disagreeable comment for Mr. Nice.[56] Khairy sold his RM9.2 million bank stake, after associates felt compelled to explain how they financed him into it in the first place.

While Dr. Mahathir's barbs found their targets, by doing so he re-activated the controversy that swirled around his own family's commercial operations when he was in office. It was the corporate activities of three sons, Mirzan, Mokhzani and Mukhriz, that prompted critics to compare his administration with Suharto's corrupt regime in Indonesia. Without even acknowledging the most blatant example of favouritism, the RM1.7 billion bailout of Mirzan Mahathir's shipping interests in 1998, Dr. Mahathir moralized on the evils of corruption, cronyism and nepotism. As "a matter of a principle," he said — obviously in complete denial — he had not