P Gunasegaram
Malaysiakini
Feb 14, 2013
QUESTION TIME I became a journalist at the Business Times, then a standalone newspaper, in 1978.
Three years later in 1981 Dr Mahathir Mohamad became prime minister of Malaysia, its fourth, succeeding Hussein Onn.
I have followed his career quite closely since and frankly I am not impressed. He started off with promise – and promised a lot – but fulfilled none if any.
In fact I would go so far as to say that he was positively the worst prime minister this country has ever had.
Through destruction of institutions such as an independent judiciary, running roughshod over civil servants, bringing his brand of power, patronage and poor economics into decision making, and making use of oppressive laws he used an iron fist to rule and in the process brought more harm to this country than any other person alive or dead.
Much of the problems of Malaysia can be traced back to him and he has made it difficult for his successors to make major changes going forward, much of which would involve unwinding processes and linkages he had put in place before. Continue reading “22 questions for Dr M, again”