November 25, 2009
The real Mahathir laid bare for Malaysians and UMNO: Siti Hasmah says “he belongs to the people“ at a cost of RM100 billion
Malaysia has squandered an estimated RM100 billion on financial scandals under the 22-year rule of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, according to a new book about the former prime minister.
According to Barry Wain, author of the soon-to-be launched ‘Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times’, direct financial losses amounted to about RM50 billion.
This doubled once the invisible costs, such as unrecorded write-offs, were taken into account. The RM100 billion total loss was equivalent to US$40 billion at then prevailing exchange rates.
Barry, who is a former editor of the Asian Wall Street Journal, says most of the scams, which included a government attempt to manipulate the international tin price and gambling by Bank Negara on global currency markets, occurred in the 1980s.
‘Malaysian Maverick’ is the first independent, full-length study of Mahathir, who retired in 2003 after more than two decades as premier. The book will be published globally next week by Palgrave Macmillan.
Wain writes that the Mahathir administration, which took office in 1981 with the slogan, “clean, efficient, trustworthy”, was almost immediately embroiled in financial scandals that “exploded with startling regularity”.
By the early 1990s, he says, cynics remarked that it had been “a good decade for bad behaviour, or a bad decade for good behaviour”.
Secret military deal with US
The book also reveals that:
- Mahathir, despite his nationalistic rants, signed a secret security agreement with the United States in 1984 that gave the Americans access to a jungle warfare training school in Johor and allowed them to set up a small-ship repair facility at Lumut and a plant in Kuala Lumpur to repair C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.
- Mahathir used a secret fund of his ruling UMNO to turn the party into a vast conglomerate with investments that spanned almost the entire economy.
- Mahathir’s UMNO financed its new Putra World Trade Centre headquarters in Kuala Lumpur partly with taxpayers money, by forcing state-owned banks to write off at least RM140 million in interest on UMNO loans.
Wain, who is now a writer-in-residence at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, however credits 
Mahathir with engineering the country’s economic transformation, deepening industrialisation and expanding Malaysia’s middle class.
But Mahathir had undermined state institutions, permitted the spread of corruption and failed to provide for Malaysia’s future leadership, he says.
Din Merican: the Malaysian DJ Blogger 
I am surprised no one has yet written on “10 reasons why Mahathir should be arrested and charged”? I am certain if someone writes that and it becomes public domain, UMNO will fall for sure.
Now, who dares to write this, and attach all proof, though some aren’t necessary because the results speak for themselves.
Perhaps, someone in PKR? And time the release just before the next general election of course.
Oops, make that 100 reasons.
Arresting and charging former premiers is a time-honoured tradition in countries like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia and other countries. So, why not Malaysia follow suit? After all, we are aspiring for developed nation status. And that’s what developed nations do. Charge their former premiers for abuse of power and corruption after they are no longer in power.
Heck, even Clinton, while still in power had to answer to the charge of … (can someone fill this up) — bad behaviour in office or something like that with a certain well-endowed young intern by the name of Monica.
Yes this mamak made his millions if not directly through his sons. However, what he did for the country is more than what Badawai could have done in a hundred years. Yes his cronies made the piles of cash and even achieved seats of power in the commercial field. Do I agree that this is acceptable?, NO.
Mahathir Iskandar Kutty has a diabolic personality, to say the least.
An Indian Muslim who totally denied his Indian ancestry, became of a racist Malay than a real Malay, but secretly classified himself Indian when he applied for medical school in Singapore.
The man has too many skeletons in the cupboard and UMNO is not prepared to expose those skeletons because they all belong to UMNO.
Look out for a forthcoming book by Barry Wain: Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times. I had a small part in the preparation of this book 6 months ago. In this book you will discover why this maverick acted as he did and cultivated many enemies because of certain inferiority complexes and perceived slights nursed by him when he was a nobody. When he became the PM he exacted out his revenge to the full on these perceived enemies.
Read this insightful book and you will understand the character of this man.
_________
Barry Wain is an excellent journalist-researcher. This book is worth reading. Good that you had a hand in editing it.—Din Merican
”Wain, who is now a writer-in-residence at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, however credits Mahathir with engineering the country’s economic transformation, deepening industrialisation and expanding Malaysia’s middle class.”
Gee,i thot that title belonged to Lim Chong Eu
imo,the title of that book should have been “100 billion dalil kenapa si kutty perlu dihalau macam marcos”..hehe
To ALL MALAYSIANS regardless of race or religion:
WAKE UP and do something if you do not want your grandchildren to become MAIDS in 10 – 20 years’ time.
Its REALLY looking at the ways this country’s wealth is plundered. Our competitive advantage is doing down the drain, the rule of LAW is no better than a THIRD world country.
VOTE wisely in GE 13. Already there are signs of Najib and UMNO-BN cronies are raping the country dry before their fall in GE 13 !
Where are Kadir Jasin , Rocky Bru and Cos..?
Defend your idol!
PKR is essentially UMNO given a new make-over. DAP is more of the same despite my good friend Tunku Aziz lending his name for the cause. PAS leaders don’t seem to know their right from their left but once they emerge from the identity crisis James Manson’s helter skelter would appear like child’s play.
But all you guys out there who think the Malays will buy into the rhetoric of the new left, think again.
Now we know why Mahathir had earlier said he wanted to migrate if Anwar comes to power. It’s pay back time!
Other excesses and wastages:
1. The Bank Bumiputra twin scandals in the early 1980s saw US$1 billion (RM3.2 billion in 2008 ringgit)
2. The Maminco attempt to corner the world tin market in the 1980s is believed to have cost some US$500 million. (RM1.6 billion)
3. Betting in foreign exchange futures cost Bank Negara Malaysia RM30 billion in the 1990s.
4. Perwaja Steel resulted in losses of US$800 million (RM2.56 billion). Eric Chia, was charged with corruption for allegedly steering US$20 million (RM64 million) to a Hong Kong-based company
5. Use of RM10 billion public funds in the Valuecap Sdn. Bhd. operation to shore up the stock market
6. Banking scandal of RM700 million losses in Bank Islam
7. The sale of M.V. Agusta by Proton for one Euro making a loss of €75.99 million (RM 348 million)
8. Wang Ehsan from oil royalty on Terengganu RM7.4 billion from 2004 – 2007
9. For the past 10 years since Philharmonic Orchestra was established, this orchestra has swallowed a total of RM500 million
10. In Advisors Fees, Mahathir was paid RM180,000, Shahrizat Abdul Jalil (women and social development affairs) RM404,726 and Abdul Hamid Othman (religious) RM549,675 per annum
11. The government has spent a total of RM3.2 billion in teaching Maths and Science in English over the past five years. Out of the amount, the government paid a whopping RM2.21 billion for the purchase of information and computer technology (ICT) equipments which it is unable to give a breakdown.
12. The commission paid for purchase of jets and submarines to two private companies Perimeker Sdn Bhd and IMT Defence Sdn Bhd amounted to RM910 million.
13. RM300 million to compensate Gerbang Perdana for the RM1.1 billion “Crooked Scenic Half-Bridge”.
14. RM1.3 billion have been wasted building the white elephant Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) facilities on cancellation of the Malaysia-Singapore scenic bridge.
15. RM 100 million on renovation of Parliament building and leaks.
16. National Astronaut Programme – RM 40 million.
17. National Service Training Programme – yearly an estimate of RM 500 million.
18. Eye on Malaysia – RM 30 million and another RM5.7 million of free ticket.
19. RM 4.63 billion, ’soft-loan’ to PKFZ.
20. RM 2.4 million on indelible ink.
21. Samy announced in September 2006 that the government paid compensation amounting to RM 38.5 billion to the highway companies. RM 380 million windfalls for 9 toll concessionaires earned solely from the toll hike in 2008 alone.
22. RM32 million timber export kickbacks involving companies connected to Sarawak Chief Minister and his family.
Bailouts –
23. Two bailouts of Malaysia Airline System RM7.9 billion.
24. Putra transport system, which cost RM4.486 billion
25. STAR-LRT bailout costing RM3.256 billion
26. National Sewerage System costing RM192.54 million
27. Seremban-Port Dickson Highway costing RM142 million
28. Kuching Prison costing RM135 million
29. Kajian Makanan dan Gunaan Orang Islam costing RM8.3 million.
30. Le Tour de Langkawi costing RM 3.5 Million
31. Wholesale distribution of tens of millions of shares in Bursa Malaysia under guise of NEP to cronies, children and relatives of BN leaders and Ministers worth billions of ringgits.
32. APs scandal had been going on year-after-year going back for more than three decades, involving a total mind-boggling sum of tens of billions of ringgits
33. Alienation of tens of thousands of hectares of commercial lands and forestry concessions to children and relatives of BN leaders and Ministers worth tens of billions of ringgits
34. Travel around Malaysia and see for yourself how many white elephants like majestic arches, roads paved with fanciful bricks, designer lamp posts, clock towers, Municipal Council buildings that looks more like Istanas, extravagant places of worship, refurbishment of residences of VIPs, abandoned or under-utilised government sports complexes and buildings, etc! Combined they could easily amount to the hundreds of billions of ringgits!
35. Wastages and forward trading of PETRONAS oil in the 1990s based on the low price of oil then. Since the accounts of PETRONAS are for the eyes of Prime Minister only, we have absolutely no idea of the amount. Whatever amount, you bet it is COLOSSAL!
In Time Asia magazine issue on March 15 2004, South East Asian economist at Morgan Stanley in Singapore Daniel Lian, figures “that the country may have lost as much as U$$100 billion (RM320 billion) since the early 1980s to corruption.” Mind you, this is only corruption and it does not include wastages!
All the rakyat’s hard earned money down the drain and they have the audacity to raise fuel prices and asking the people to change their lifestyles.
_________
Ms. Zuhri,
Thanks for the additional information on the state of affairs under UMNO-BN rule. Don’t you think that this is more than we can take? I wonder why we are happy to let these leaders run the country.–Din Merican
All the billions squandered…imagine how many eligible students can get free university studies? The rakyat could have enjoyed a tax-free country and free education.
We have not reached the tipping point yet. The rakyat has not suffered enough. Just wait until Malaysia is bare, no forest, no oil, no minerals, only not-very-smart people are left as residence. By then Malaysians will no longer have worship-puppy-love on UMNO and Mahitler. By then Malaysians may be like Somalia, poor and uneducated.
By then the people will fight for change.
someone should just expose Mahathir for what he really is – conman of the highest order, in the same rank as Marcos, Suharto etc. Dictators who plundered and raped their own countries. Complain to MACC … who will no doubt destroy all the evidence and give a report citing “Insufficient evidence to charge him.” The Att-Gen will concur , end of matter. We need to change the government so that all those old files can be declassified and all the perpetrators can be arrested and charged. That probably include many past and present ministers. We need to do this in order to rid Malaysia of these people who are hindering the progress of the country and robbing Malaysians of their rightful inheritance. Malaysia is a rich country but the citizens are generally poor. UMNO admitted it as much – low salaries in Malaysia are now lower than in Thailand. Yet, the government wants to implement GST, end of life policy for cars (did they expect retirees to take out 7-year loans for new cars????), and etc. – all designed to suck dry the country before they lose power in the next GE.
I’ve just been amused by the critics of Dr M. If you’re indeed (a) a concerned Malaysian (b) a young Malaysian under the age of 40 (c) a voter, then by all means speak up against the injustices & atrocities(economic or otherwise) commited by our politicians & public servants. BUT remember dont just parrot off what your friends told you about what their friends told them. In other words get the facts first before spouting. Heck anyone can stand up and accuse anyone else of anything.
I AM NOT saying I know everything about Dr M but he sure as hell did a much better job than the two morons after him. IF you’r sincere about changing the country for the better..and not just so you can go and rape abit of it for your ownself then take the route towards getting heard. Speak to all of your friends and community abut how things can be better, speak to your local council, speak to your parlimentary rep,speak to your prime minister..hell speak up…! & dont forget to document everything..if possible in the internet..cc the world press and other corruption watchdogs out there in the www. Let EVERYONE know about any injustices,incidences of corruption etc. etc.Mst importantly, let the world know. BUT have your facts ready. Dont get on the spout wagon.
If YOU want a better Malaysia YOU have to start doing something about it. If you think teaching Maths & Science in 3 different languages (& none of them is English) is stupidity of the highest order tell the your family and friends & the world so. Dont keep quiet.If YOU want a MALAYSIAN society & not a racially polarised one ..SAY SO.
Its not ALL Dr M’s fault for where we are today..he’s one man..who had to rely on a bunch of self serving morons to carry out his work. .and YOU or your parents voted in most of them. So if you KNOW Dr M is rotten reveal the FACTS..don’t join the spout wagon for the sake of it.
I’m sure Barry Wain has evidence & I hope they’re indisputable. I love a juicy story too. If its merely speculative & based on hearsay then he’s no better than the rest of the spouters here. I cant wait for the book.
_________
Barry Wain interviewed many people in the preparation of this book and reading volumes of books and papers. It should be a good book.–Din Merican
Where to get the book? Publisher / Launch date?
___________
The launch will be on December 4, 2009 in Singapore. Please contact ISEAS for more details. In Kuala Lumpur, please contact Kinokunya-KLCC Suria (Arthur Law) which has ordered the book.—Din Merican
It’s USD90 to pre-order via amazon.com. That’s kinda steep.
Wonders how much Kino will charge to the same hardcover. No paperback for the meantime right?
Jimbet.
Dear Author dinmerican.wordpress.com !
I consider, that you are mistaken. I suggest it to discuss. Write to me on PM, we will talk.
________
I will discuss with you only if I know your true identity. You know who I am. If not, go to Din Merican’s Welcome. I do not think I am mistaken. I have been misled in the past. Now new facts are emerging and based on them, I have a different view of the former PM, who I once admired.–Din Merican
It is my opinion (now partly supported by Barry’s book) that Malaysia should be richer than Singapore if all its wealth had been conserved openly, honestly and fairly. After all, much of Singapore’s wealth was made an an entreport to Malaysia. If the trade of Malaysia avoided Singapore, Singapore would not be where it is. If that wealth had been conserved, so would the human resource that has benefitted Singapore, Australia, N.Z., US, etc.
We would have achieved developed nation status a decade ago. Becoming a wealthy nation might have also happened had Malaysian money and resources been conserved instead of being lost in so many ways now partly quantified.
Dr Mahathir mastered the art of deception and made a fool of all of us.we cannot deny his plans to develop malaysia and made the world look and hear this small nation.All this at what cost?he has destroyed the basic fabric of justice,freedom and created all the monsters. As a Muslim how can we accept what he did to Anwar Ibrahim.Dr.M destroyed the racial tolerance fabric weaved by our former leaders. Dr.M must be reported to the International Court of Justice.
Hey Guys,
What do you expect from a Bomoh? Do you really think this mamak studied Medicine in Singapore and then decided to go into politics in order to develop this country and its people? You must be mad to believe that!!.
All he wanted was to become a Bomoh and please look at all his Bomoh network fronted by Daim, (You guys forgot his right hand man who is now very Diam.. macam tikus yang sudah kenyang!!) Anakda Khrisnan, Taik Mahmud of Sarawak, Ting APek King, Ling Liong Shit, Samy of no Value, Wang Mokhtar of Terengganu, Eric Sial of Perwaja, and many more dubious and corrupt characters…and ..and if you recall your Saudara Anwar also was once in this komplot dan menjadi tali barut!!
Saudara kita juga tidak kurang dengan kuncu-kuncunya yang sekarang juga sudah kaya raya. Look at his once closest buddy, our national dramatist turned farmer konon, JJ? Apa kurang?
So what are we talking about guys????
if he is to be blamed for the RM 100 billion of waste, then is he also responsible for the gaining of Malaysian international reserve of RM 334 billion more?
__________
Malay guy, there is no connection between our international reserves and the rm100 billion of waste. The latter is made up of decisions made by Mahathir using taxpayers money, oil revenues and our savings, and the former are FDIs and net trade inflows. One is driven by strong personal ambition to leave a legacy, and the other by sound economic policies, especially on trade and investment. Herein, you see the paradoxes of Mahathirism. –Din Merican
I really want to read this book.
________
I am told that Barry Wain’s book is available in Singapore and elsewhere except Malaysia. There is a strong suspicion that it will be banned here because Najib wants to “protect” Mahathir…Din Merican
30 years of ignorant ,malaysians have been cheated out of ignorant .Every malaysians are now in icu .Regreted for voted in these people in out ignorant .before i always hv high regards for them.What more can i say ?????
30 years of ignorant ,malaysians have been cheated out of ignorant .Every malaysians are now in icu .Regreted for voted in these people in out of ignorant .before i always hv high regards for them.What more can i say ?????
well, ordinary citizens shld read this book and think carefully which party to vote for in d next coming GE before V become d next “Indon”! Sad…
I don’t think spending money for mega projects of national interest is a waste of funds. It benefitted the people all over the country. This includes KLIA, Formula 1, Putrajaya, KLCC, etc. Of course, there are other projects which needs investigation like Perwaja, sales of MV Augusta, RM270 billion of Petronas money.
We were a peaceful loving country without racial hatred, street demos. Today, we are filled with news of hatred, crimes which are rarely heard of during his TDM time. Whatever it is, he is the BEST PM we ever had (Even now).
_________
Namza, let History be the judge of that. If he has done something wrong, then he account for it. No exceptions as this is the price of power. Abuse it, you must face the consequences and ire of the Malaysian public. –Din Merican
FORM ROYAL PROBE ON DR M’S SQUANDERING
By Dr. Mahathir Mohamad on December 22, 2009 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (249) | TrackBacks (0)
1. I welcome Lim Kit Siang’s proposal for Najib to set up a royal commission on whether I burned RM100 billion on grandiose projects and corruption during my 22-year reign.
2. Such a commission should not be made up of Government nominees but should have as members impeccable people including foreigners and members of Transparency International.
3. The commission should not confine to one Prime Minister only but to Tun Abdullah Badawi’s regime.
4. It should include how RM270 billion of Petronas money paid during Abdullah’s five-year term was spent; what projects were financed by this huge fund and the cost of all these projects.
5. It should include how much money was lost due to the cancellation of the crooked bridge and the Johore Baru to Padang Besar railway.
6. What is the cost over-run in the construction of the Bakun Hydroelectric project.
7. The financing of the second Penang Bridge and the procedure followed when giving out this contract.
8. I also agree with Lim Kit Siang that the investigation would reflect Najib’s commitment to “combating corruption”.
9. In order that the enquiry by the commission would be successful, Government must give the undertaking to give full access to the commission of all the documents and accounts of the Government over the period 1981-2009. There should be no cover-up of any kind.
10. Barry Wain must provide documentary proof of any sum that he alleged I had burned.
11. I will co-operate fully with the commission.
12. Depending upon the result of the commission, I reserve the right to sue Barry Wain, Lim Kit Siang and Malaysiakini.com for libel for a sum to be disclosed later.
13. If the Government is witholding the book: “Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times”, I would request that the book be released forthwith. I am not in need of Government protection.
MALAYSIAN MAVERICK
By Dr. Mahathir Mohamad on December 24, 2009 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (16) | TrackBacks (0)
1. Barry Wain was formerly with the Asian Wall Street Journal and Asia Week.
2. Presently he is with the Singapore think tank, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
3. He knows that if he writes anything against Singapore leaders he would be dragged to the courts, sued and forced to pay huge indemnity. His colleagues have all been found guilty of defamation when they wrote something that was not approved by Singapore leaders. There has never been a libel suit by Singaporean leaders which has been thrown out by the courts. It is safe for journalists to impute all kinds of misbehaviour by Malaysian leaders. There have been many cases where the courts have found in favour of the journalists.
4. In Barry Wain’s book I was accused of losing Government money over the purchase of tin being sold by speculators. When the time came for them to deliver the tin, they could not deliver as they had no physical tin. But the London Metal Exchange ruled that the speculators need not honour the contract to sell to us.
5. We lost money but not in billions of Ringgit as alleged.
6. Bank Negara traded foreign currencies.I don’t know how much but we lost money. Government stopped the trading by Bank Negara. Again the amount is not as imputed by Barry Wain.
7. The third case is with regards to the losses by Bank Bumiputra in Hong Kong.
8. Altogether I don’t think the amount lost added up to RM10 billion even. If we had lost 100 billion Ringgit the Government would be in deep trouble. But although we did have poor growth during certain years, the Government had never failed to meet all financial commitments including the servicing of loans. In fact we had enough money to prepay loans. The projects of course cost a lot of money. But the projects can be seen by the people. Penang Bridge, Twin Towers, KL Tower, KL International Airport, North Port and West Port in Klang, commuter train, LRT and monorail, numerous expressways all over the country, electrification and double tracking, Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, Langkawi development, Proton, Modenas, Silterra chip manufacturing plant, cement plants etc. etc. However, I don’t think Barry Wain was referring to these projects when he said I burnt RM100million of Government money.
9. The five years of Tun Abdullah’s regime saw unprecedented profits by Petronas due to the high price of oil. In my 22 years Petronas paid to the Government 126 billion Ringgit. Petronas paid to the Government of Tun Abdullah a total of 270 billion Ringgit in five years.
10. How was this huge sum spent? There are only empty corridors everywhere.
11. The public has a right to know how 270 billion Ringgit in five years have been spent. What projects have been financed by it. Why do we have to borrow money from China to build the second Penang Bridge?
12. I know every effort was made to find whether I had misused Government money. Failing to find anything the Abdullah Government set up a Royal Commission and accused me of being influenced by others in the choice of judges.
13. I have a right to clear my name. Tun Abdullah also has a right to clear his name.
14. The Government should cooperate and open all its books. There should be no cover-up. The Government is committed to transparency. It should demonstrate that it keeps its promises.
Tun Mahathir has responded to the challenge. But this pathetic reply by Lim Kit Siang made a mockery of himself. Please read:-
Kit Siang on the other hand, sensing his blunder could not enjoy his time properly in Tokyo. He tweeted yesterday:
1. Why Mahathir reserved right 2sue me 4stmt calling 4RCI into allegation in “Maverick Mahathir” RM100 bil wasted or burned in 22 yrs PMship?
12/23/2009 09:31 PM
2. Why his suit conditional on outcome of RCI into Barry Wain’s allegation when M will do utmost 2block RCI though claiming support publicly?
12/23/2009 09:35 PM
3. Why Mahathir don’t sue me now if I had libelled him calling for RCI into Barry Wain’s RM100 billion allegation in his book Maverick M?
12/23/2009 09:39 PM
4. Mahathir wants Wain’s book 2b released forthwith.Who really believe Mahathir? Or is Najib or Hisham culprit blocking “Maverick M”’s release?
12/23/2009 09:45 PM
Lim Kit Siang trying to “turnaround”???? Wat de fish man!
Let’s see if the blog owner’s freedom of speech would publish my 3 earlier postings……
saya tabik bang din merican (sound like american). bagai profesor serba tahu. ada komisenkah barry wain bagi you untuk promote dia punya cerita dongeng itu.kalau you muslaim jangan aibkn orang.
din merican..
x payah la bersekongkol dengan orang kafir semata-mata untuk menjatuhkan seorang pejuang dan nasionalis Islam. Insafla..ni semua adalah agenda zionis dan kafir untuk menyambut kedatangan dajal
It shudders to learn so much of tax payers money being squandered by the Mahathir Regime. Our grand children are going to end up as maids no doubt about it unless another tsunami takes place on GE13
Profit vs loss is tradition in business. A country is like an organisation, the difference is it has to look on the public welfare. Loss of 100 billion in 22 years to compare with the development we have today nothing to be question about. What is important is we live in harmony and can move forward long with the development of technology and he is worth more than that RM100b you short thinker.
Mahathir is a pendatang from India…this mamak kutti is the source of all problem in Malaysia. This guy is same like Khir Toyol who swim from Pulau Jawa to Selangor and built million dollar mansion. Mohd Mohd Tyson already take several millions to buy few houses in Australia although he don’t know how to speak English.
Razak already enjoying his holiday from Mongolia to UK after buying submarine & getting commisens. All these traitors of Malaysia is swindling the money from Malaysia and using those pig head low class Malays by paying them RM10 to shout Malaysia Boleh or fight for Ketuanan Melayu while the really smart brains celup like this Mamak Kuti, Toyol, Chandran Mohd/Muzaffar,Ridhuan Tee type who is the mix breed goes out and confuse the Malaysw what is their actual identity. Are they orang asli mix breed? or indian breed? chinese breed? or Jawa breed or bugis breed? They don’t know which breed and they call themseleve as Malay breed. Where in the world you find a group of people from various breed put into constitution to call themselve a Malay breed? In US, you are call Americans, in UK, Britons, is there a constitution in US and UK stated a special race for Anglo Saxon or white skin people of American to be preserve or protected? Only weak people need to be preseverve or protected. And we don’t know, really, should a mamak kutti be protected species? you take and indian and married a orang asli…and give Islamic name, then you consider Mahatma Gandhi or Mahathir Gandi? Or you go under the sun and sunburn to become cokolat or black as negro and consider new species? Why do cosmetic companies sell white cream to make a person white? Isn’t this racist and against people who like to be black or cokolat color? Since they fight for their race, and like proud of their color, they should boycott all these cosmetic companies and force for equal rights to sell cream to make people skin black or cokolat. Because Black is beautiful….and so is mamak kuti.
I think the number has been exagerated by barry wain, though, there may be some truth in his claimed..
RM126 billion from petronas is not much to spend over 22 years period.. that make up about RM5 billions a year to spend.. how much is RM5 billion.. not much at all.. it can only cover subsidies for fuel in a year time.. and how much subsidies do we have in Malaysia.. I think every single thing that we touch and eat have been subsidies..
Yes, we still have other incomes such as from taxes and other things.. but have you compared our taxes rate with other developed countries.. the different are very big.. Also people in developed countries do not enjoy subsidies as we do.. so it does not make any sense if we just look at one side and said Malaysia should already become a develop nation if not because of TDM.. The question is, are we ready to become a developed country if we are still relying on these subsidies.. make so much noises when the fuel price goes up by 5 cent per litre, though, at developed countries the price of fuel can fluctuate up to 20-60 cent per day !!
I agreed that some of the losses were totally due to bad investments.. of course you cannot always make money when you invest in businesses.. if that the case, then, you will never see businessmans go bankcrupt..
Some of you are right by saying that there are only americans and perhaps australians with no races.. Just to remind you that these people are not the indegineous people.. the red indians and aborigines are the indigeneous who have been discriminated by these so called immigrant.. do you want that to happen in Malaysia..
In short, I think there are some truth in barry wain claimed but the number has been exagerated and some of the losses were not due to corruptioon but is due to bad investment..
Imagine if we used that 100 billion ringgit (which literally equals to 200-300 billion for today standard) to build roads to rural areas in Sabah and Sarawak, Kelantan, Pahang, Kedah, Perak and so much more. This states have very poor road connectivity. By building roads it could easily double or triple per capita income in these states. But no, Mahathir is all about KL. Even Penang at that time which is the 2nd most important city are largely abandoned. There is no lrts or monorails in Penang which is pathetic. Even in his beloved city KL he didnt do enough regarding public transport, its all about building highways. 100 billion can easily make Malaysia a developed country if it is spent wisely. Mahathir is stupid. The only good leader we have is Tun Razak. Wain is wrong. The person that contributed a lot to the rise of middle-class people is Tun Razak. He improves the hardcore poor lives by creating felda. Mahathir just inherited it from him.