Anwar, It's Time To Bury Mahathir

If there is one, if not, annoying constant in Malaysian politics, it is Dr Mahathir. Despite his slow decline into irrelevance, Mahathir has consistently attempted to make everything in Malaysia about the single thing that he cares about: himself.

However, this time he may have made his final, fatal miscalculation - engaging with the narrative that he was corrupt and abused his power to enrich himself, his family, and his cronies.

Now, it is an open secret that Mahathir and his family have never thoroughly explained the source of their wealth. A library of material is circulating on social media about his purported misdeeds.

Among which includes the rumours: Mokhzani owns 255 companies, with estimated total assets worth USD21 billion;
Mirzan owns 156 companies, with estimated total assets worth USD17 billion;
Mukhriz owns 128 companies, with estimated total assets worth USD13 billion; and
Marina owns 52 companies, with estimated total assets worth USD 9 billion.

Anwar's insinuations in a speech about a man in power for 22 years and 22 months being involved in corrupt practices and Mahathir's subsequent reaction only added fuel to this fire.

After weeks of tit-for-tat, the prime minister's patience must have worn out, and he decided to tackle Mahathir head-on.

Out of all the rumours surrounding the Mahathir clan's wealth, one story that needs clarity is whether he had simply abused the Malay-first agenda to enrich himself and his cronies.

When Mahathir took office, insiders say, he planned to create a cadre of 100 super-rich bumis who, in turn, would help rural Malays into prosperity under a konsep payung, or umbrella concept routed through the United Malays National Organization, much the way he envisioned driving the country into industrialisation through massive projects.

This, of course, has yet to happen.

Their creations included privatising public services, including multi-billion projects such as the North-South Highway, water and sewerage, the Bakun dam, Light Rail Transit System and the National Train Service (KTM).

The benefits of these schemes evaded the average Malaysian – the only beneficiaries being companies linked to favoured individuals. These companies were also often given bailouts and "preferred financing" when they invariably failed. One has to look at the sordid state of our infrastructure to see what the compromised institutional design and regulatory enforcement of the Mahathir-era was given to Malaysia.

What are the effects of this on Mahathir’s favoured bumiputeras? Despite a larger share of wealth at the top for Bumiputera - the Bumiputera have also consistently recorded higher independence of poverty in comparison to the Chinese and Indians but not lower than the ‘Others’. Although the number has drastically decreased, the difference is still more significant between the Chinese and Indians.

Mahathir seems content that most Bumiputera stay in the throes of poverty so long that his “favoured” Bumiputera stand to benefit.

Of course, the onus of revealing all of this is on Anwar. He has to pick up the gauntlet laid by Mahathir. But for the sake of public interest and all Malaysians, we must bury Mahathir's legacy ourselves to move the country forward.

Mahathir has already left a sordid legacy for us in Malaysia if he also wants to ruin his own legacy. I'm sure most Malaysians are more than happy to oblige.