Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times Barry Wain (grave mercy .TXT) 📖

fellow Malays," he once said. "Why don't we ask how the non-Malays acquired their wealth?".[19] Dr. Mahathir retained the services of a number of senior officials and ministers considered by the public to be corrupt, prepared to tolerate their perceived ethical flaws as long as they performed their assigned tasks. He rejected demands by the opposition and non-governmental activists that he give the Anti-Corruption Agency independent status, preferring to keep it answerable to him.

At the UMNO General Assembly in 2000, 19 years after he became president, Dr. Mahathir had broken down and wept over "money politics", which put a price on almost every party post. He explained later his "one great fear" was that a prime minister might come to power through corruption, and therefore "everything possible" should be done to ensure that only "clean leaders" were elected. Reminded that some vice presidents and Supreme Council members were suspected to have bought votes to get elected, Dr. Mahathir protested that "I cannot work on the basis of accusations. I must have clear evidence."[20]

In no time at all, Prime Minister Abdullah managed to obtain some of the evidence that had eluded Dr. Mahathir. Abdullah was aware that his anti-corruption campaign had raised expectations, but that a sceptical public doubted the authorities would net more than the usual ikan bilis, little fish, and reel in some recognized sharks. The separate arrest of Eric Chia, a prominent businessman, and Kasitah Gaddam, the Minister of Land and Cooperative Development in Abdullah's Cabinet, was meant to answer the sceptics. Chia was charged with criminal breach of trust when he was managing director of state-owned steelmaker Perwaja Trengganu Sdn. Bhd., while Kasitah was accused of abusing his position when he was executive chairman of Sabah Land Development Board. Both pleaded not guilty. Although their appearance in court only days apart was given maximum exposure in the local press and became a minor sensation, their prosecution in early 2004 raised doubts about Abdullah's commitment to a serious clean-up.

Chia was a close friend of Dr. Mahathir, who had personally recruited him in 1988 to run Perwaja, a pillar of Malaysia's troubled venture into heavy industry. Not long after Chia resigned in 1996, it was revealed that the company was insolvent with massive debts, and the Anti-Corruption Agency was called in to investigate. That the aging and ailing Chia was being charged eight years later looked odd, to say the least. In addition, the amount he was accused of diverting to a non-existent company in Hong Kong, RM76.4 million, was a fraction of Perwaja's losses and would not be able to explain what went wrong. As for Kasitah, he was an appointed senator and the least known member of the Cabinet, from Sabah state in East Malaysia, and his alleged offences also dated back a decade.

The convenient indictment of Chia and Kasitah, while no doubt welcomed by the public as a sign that the government was actually cracking down on corruption, also reinforced the impression that the Anti-Corruption Agency served a political purpose. And the disclosure by one of Abdullah's ministerial colleagues that 18 more high-profile cases were awaiting action only strengthened that suspicion. It appeared that translating investigation into prosecution might still depend on the advantages, if any, it offered to the political leadership.

While Abdullah deserved the sobriquet Mr. Clean in the sense that he had not enriched himself, his family and friends had benefited from the system of patronage he was supposed to be dismantling. A brother, who was in the catering business, had received a 15-year contract for the armed forces canteens when Abdullah was defence minister. Recently, the brother had been awarded the privatization of the national airline's catering service, with reports of a generous, guaranteed return for nine years. Abdullah's Cambridge-educated son, Kamaluddin, was identified as one of the country's fastest-rising corporate figures. According to a local business magazine, Kamaluddin, 36, the major shareholder in rapidly-expanding Scomi Bhd., a publicly listed oil and gas supplies services company, was the tenth wealthiest Malay in 2004, with assets of more than RM320 million.

Abdullah also had another reason to divert attention elsewhere at this time: serious U.S. allegations that Scomi Precision Engineering Sdn. Bhd., a company part-owned by Kamaluddin, had produced centrifuge components suitable for developing nuclear weapons. The Malaysian police and Abdullah were quick to deny the accusations, after they appeared in the international media in February 2004. They said Scomi Engineering did not have such capabilities, and had fulfilled a contract believing it to be lawful. But their claims carried little credibility. The Pakistani bomb-maker who ran a nuclear black market network, Abdul Qadeer Khan, had made several visits to Malaysia and logically would have met top officials. Kamaluddin also had close relations with the Dubai-based Sri Lankan, Buhary Syed Abu Tahir, described by President George W. Bush as the network's "chief financial officer and money launderer". Despite a clear conflict of interest — given his position as home affairs minister in charge of the police as well as prime minister — Abdullah ignored calls for an independent inquiry.

Much more substantive were Abdullah's economic-policy forays, venturing where angels had long feared to tread: close to Dr. Mahathir's toes. Abdullah indefinitely postponed the construction of a RM14.5 billion electrified, double-track railway line that was to have stretched the length of peninsular Malaysia. On the face of it, the decision was straightforward: Facing a nagging budget deficit, the government chose to shelve the deal, which would have been Malaysia's largest privatization venture, as it included the sale of the country's unprofitable state railway company. But this particular deal had sensitivity written all over it. Dr. Mahathir had approved the contract only days before his exit, giving it to a consortium led by the listed conglomerate, Malaysia Mining Corporation Bhd., which was controlled by a favoured friend, Syed Mokhtar Albukhary. Domestic critics contended that the proposed railway would not be commercially viable and would strain the government's finances, while China and India protested on other grounds: Kuala Lumpur