Cala: Of course Dr Mahathir Mohamad is only a human being, thus making mistakes either by commission or omission is expected.
In the end, rent-seekers rent captured state resources in big ways (Khoo, 1995; Tan, 2008; Wain, 2009). To me, his major weakness lies in his underestimation of the need to build administrative capacity as he pushes Malaysia forward. As a result, several projects failed due to a weak set of managers entrusted to do the job.
Examples: Proton, MAS (Malaysia Airlines) and Perwaja Steel. In addition, he appears to pay more attention to form rather than substance. Examples: Twin Towers and Putrajaya.
As Keynes (1926) explains, the inefficient workings of leaders in the Third World resembled those Western countries in the 17th and 18th centuries "despite their trappings of modernity".
Docs: Leaders at fault? Hear, hear! Mahathir, you most certainly got that right on the dot. Bad leadership is to blame for the failings of the BN model.
Sadly, I don't think you should be absolved from the part you played or your leadership role in contributing to the rot of BN.
Swipenter: Blame the leaders and not the system? TDM (Tun Dr Mahathir) has a very good point here. He chose both leaders; Abdullah Ahmad Badawi directly and Najib Razak indirectly. But he never blames himself for the choice of both leaders.
He also made all BN component parties and their leaders subservient to Umno so much so they are just there to project an image of the Umno-led government as consensual and multiracial in all official policies.
One thing stands out though. He never blames himself for any shortcomings of the Umno-BN coalition government he had led for 22 long years.
AnonymousBersih: If the system cannot produce good leaders, then it is a bad system. The system must be changed.
Onyourtoes: I don't know whether to laugh or to cry - Mahathir really does not know his own baloney. Look, all the subsequent leaders of Umno - they are just following your bad examples. First appointing himself PM and also finance minister. Which Westminster system of government has so much concentration of power in the hands of the PM?
Then there were the white elephant projects. You have your Twin Towers, Putrajaya, bio-valley, entertainment valley, InventQ Jaya and of course, the 'crooked' bridge which most fortunately did not get to be implemented.
Of course, Abdullah got all the empty corridors and now Naj!b with his 1Malaysia and GTP and ETP. Think about it, what difference do all these make?
The only difference is you are just lucky, you manage to bail out in time. If you stay on, the 308 tsunami would have occurred in 2004, not 2008.
Dood: The irony is, the worst BN leader is no one other than Mahathir himself. He is the one who started the rot of racism and religious bigotry, among others, in our country.
Dr Suresh Kumar: Mahathir, I don't see any changes in policies during Abdullah's time. In fact, most of your policies which are embedded with institutionalised racism and cronyism continue to exist today. So, why blame Abdullah?
If anything, Abdullah, may have saved the country from losing billions of ringgit in unnecessary projects, which the taxpayers could ill afford during a tumultuous economic period. The other thing Abdullah did - by accident rather than by design - was giving more leeway for freedom of speech - something which is unthinkable during your 22-year rule.
But one thing, which will haunt you forever, are the tears of thousands of weak, defenseless and poor Indians, who have become the new urban underclass due to your merciless and heartless discriminatory policies. May God forgive you for that.
Jiminy Qrikert: Well, blaming his own handpicked successor for the so-called ills plaguing the nation now is the absolutely silliest thing Mahathir has said.
But this time, no, the rakyat will not think "it was very wise". So, truth be told, it is very, very silly to blame the person he picked as when he was in power; he could have chosen anyone to be his successor, therefore his training as a doctor which he says "is very good for politicians" would have armed him with the discipline of weighing in a very rational manner the strengths and weaknesses of his chosen one.
But in the final analysis, the doctor chose to be the quintessential politician that he is - he chose someone who he felt was too weak to resist or subvert the legacy he had planned and outlined, and by his own calculations, a person too weak to have his own vision to take the nation forward.
When his successor proved to be his own man, Mahathir proceeded to tear him down from within Umno and in public.
Oscar Kilo: Dr M is complaining about his own legacy. He is criticising his own past decisions and actions. Either he is senile or he is admitting his mistakes. But I think he is senile, because he does not exhibit any remorse or regret for his past mistakes.
Kee Thuan Chye: Yes, we should blame the policies too, and the man who started all those blameworthy policies was none other than Mahathir himself.
He made the judiciary what it is; he muzzled the mainstream media so that from his time onwards, no media organisation dared to criticise the PM; he brought in the IPPs (independent power producers) and allowed them to negotiate contracts that favoured themselves heavily; he divided and ruled the races; he promoted cronyism and started the practice of appeasing Umnoputras with huge projects, some of which turned into white elephants, like Putrajaya. I could go on and on.
He cannot blame Abdullah for making a 180-degree turn on the Mahathir policies; the truth is, Abdullah carried on many of the same policies. Even today, they are still around.
When Mahathir opens his mouth, turd comes out of it. Please don't let it smear the pages of Malaysiakini. Just black him out.
Multi Racial: Dr M, sorry we disagree with your logic. We think both the BN leaders and the system they impose on us suck. But we do agree with you - Abdullah and Najib are bad leaders but all those bad things started from your time.
Remember, you initiated BTN and it caused so much racial disharmony. The education system went from hero to zero during your time. No doubt, we have more students with more As but the quality has dropped, so what is the point? Religious tolerance went from bad to worse.
Security is now so bad that every resident has to pay more for additional private security. Corruption is at its peak. Sorry, the problem started with you and you should be man enough to accept it instead of passing the buck.
Feelletdownbybn: Both the system and the leaders are bad. BN's system breeds corruption. Coupled with leaders with very low integrity, you have what you have now.
How could Mokhzani Mahathir become filthy rich without Mahathir's helping hand. Look at Khairy Jamaluddin, the PM's brother, Nazir Razak, and many more. Are these just pure coincidences that in order to be rich in Malaysia, you must have the same bloodlines with the PM?
Mahathir, I used to have high regard for you. Now at almost 60, and having seen how crooked BN leaders are including you, that respect is completely gone. BN and its leaders have outlived their usefulness.
Rick Teo Mahathir, you are the source of our problems; it is because of your policies that our country has degenerated to such a state of despair and hopelessness.
All our institutions are now at the beck and call of our executives and no longer independent. You should have been a doctor and not a politician.
Only one with a lawyer's background would appreciate the need for independence of the judiciary. Instead you wanted the judiciary to be under the executive.
You are the worst PM our country has ever had. All your ideas are nothing but to enrich your family and cronies, and you left a legacy of bad administration and corruption.
Bozo: Are you trying to say or hint that Najib is no good and Muhyiddin Yassin is better? Don't try to take sides. The problems in the whole country were started by you. Don't point to others.
Pemerhati: After writing a book about himself filled with half truths and outright lies, Mahathir is again spewing his usual lies and idiotic statements such as "under the concept of a coalition government, in which all the races participate and where we agreed that no one (race) should get everything (they) are entitled to and everybody must make sacrifices...".
What he actually did and continues to do through Perkasa is to play the race and religious card to the hilt and divide the various ethnic groups, so that he and Umno can continue to rule through fraudulent elections and plunder the country and steal billions annually.
Thanks to the Internet and various independent news sites and blogs the people in the urban areas have wised up. The opposition needs to concentrate heavily in the rural areas and counter BN's lies and propaganda to win the next general election and bring the BN thieves to book and recover the stolen billions.
Black Mamba Race relations took a dip right after Dr M became the patron of Perkasa. His successors should have had him locked away in Kamunting, but they feared him as it was he who had brokered their ascension to premiership.
Bluemountains Dr M is a bull in a china shop. Is there any public institution in this country that has not been destroyed by him?
a writing-minded
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