I have said for a long time now, that Mahathir is the worst thing to have happened to Malaysia. Not long after the Asian financial crisis, I was astounded when I met young fresh graduates who adored Mahathir. They said “he has made Malaysia what it is today (ie around 2002-3)”. Little did they realise the insight of what they said. Truly, Malaysia is what it is today mostly because of what Mahathir did. Sure he pushed for major structures to be built but were those structures what Malaysia truly needed and could the money have been better spent on other avenues? More importantly, in pushing for his agenda to be implemented, what did he incur in terms of institutional costs? He wrecked the judiciary and civil service as well as government linked enterprises including Petronas. Malaysian judges are now a joke and as a consequence, the legal profession has ben dragged down. Now, a Malaysian lawyer is no longer respected in the Commonwealth, at least not as much as he used to be.

Mahathir’s attempts to look and sound righteous fly against all these revelations. First the Lingam tapes scandal and now the Ian Chin disclosures. Both show him to be the contemptuous and manipulative bully that he is, one who cares not for age old institutions and does not look beyond the long term integrity of frameworks and procedures, only his immediate causes. These were often the wealth of his cronies and family. What a shameless man.