TIME’s Hannah Beech and Baradan Kuppusamy recently met former premier Tun Mahahtir Mohamad, where he spoke of his feud with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, his legacy, and why the developing world needs a champion.

(SOURCE: TIME, 30 October 2006)

"Planning means looking ahead. When I do things, I think very far ahead, not 10 years, 20 years, [but] 100 years ahead," Tun said when he was asked on whether his legacy as the builder of amazing things for Malaysia is being undermined.

The brutal reality between the duo? Excerpt:

This darker side of Mahathir’s legacy is now showing its face. Festering problems like corruption, cronyism and nepotism have contributed to a drop in foreign direct investment in Malaysia—down 14% last year. With alluring alternatives such as China and Vietnam, Malaysia’s steady, English-speaking economy can no longer count on its competitive edge. Equally important, despite long-standing efforts to stitch together Malaysia’s ethnic patchwork of majority Malays and minority Chinese and Indians, the three groups appear to be growing apart. Abdullah may have come to office with a reputation as a reformer and consensus-builder, but his three-year tenure has so far offered few solutions to these essential problems.

Yet it is precisely how he handles such fissures in the Malaysian economy and society—as well as the debilitating feud with his predecessor—that will dictate the place Malaysia will hold in the new Asia.

In 2004 general election, Pak Lah won a landslide victory, where people decided to give him the benefit of doubt by voting the ruling coalition.

However, in the next few years after the triumph, the people that voted him in were left to ponder whether the right decision was made back then. Miracle, magical solutions in a blink of eye or rather, continue to preserve the little faith?

Anybody?

Permalink | Leave a comment | Trackback
Subscribe to Email Feed | Subscribe to RSS Feed