Mahathir's legacy would be judged by history

 We may dislike Mahathir for his quarrelsome attitude towards Singapore, but we should give him credit for his guts in going against the flow, by refusing IMF aid during the 2008 Financial Crisis. Indonesia on the other hand accepted aid from the IMF and although the consequences were seldom discussed, they were pointed out by not a few analysts. Sectors and banks faced forced closures and massive job losses were reported. Those are conditions for taking IMF loans.

Whether that IMF aid would have helped Malaysia or not is subject to argument. It certainly is not the root cause of what ails Malaysia today. Something more structural is the cause of what Malaysia is suffering today.

The New Economic Policy introduced by Mahathir was the straw that broke the camel's back. It was the policy that crippled Malaysia and Mahathir stands as the architect of the decline of Malaysia with his racially biased policies and corruption within the ruling echelon. Every politician in power had their hands in the till.

The clutch mentality of the common Malays under that NEP has now become so deeply ingrained inside their mindset, that no one can ever change that policy without committing political suicide. It has become the epitome of all the ills befalling the country today. The NEP destroyed the education system, it also destroyed the meritocracy system of allowing the best to do the job of running the country, it was a system that was to create the brain drain that ultimately only the mediocre are left behind to run the country, and in a sense, it destroyed a whole generation.

And Singapore was the country that largely benefitted from Malaysia's brain drain, to the chagrin of Mahathir. Can we blame him for his attitude towards us?

Can Anwar Ibrahim change all that decades long destruction by Mahathir. He has a big problem by having UMNO as his coalition partner, which makes his job of fighting corruption that much harder for fairness. His arms are tied in domestic affairs, especially draining the swamp in his backyard without maligning UMNO.

Anonymous