Tun Dr. Mahathir - Father of Squander?

Opinions vary from 'Definitely' to 'NO, in fact, he was the key person which made possible, the iconic Twin Towers, KLIA, Putrajaya, F1 Race Track, North-South Expressway, Penang Bridge, etc. etc.'

We can argue until the cows come home without any agreeable conclusion. For possible corruption charges, we know how ineffective our MACC and AG are. So we are left with trying to make sense of the main arguments on the main items.

The key word is 'squander' which does not necessarily mean corruption but does not preclude it. Then we are left with each individual's perception of what is considered squander.

If we use an analogy of a family, then the patriarch or matriarch is responsible for the house, car and other necessary items and expenses. When times were good (think Petronas oil), by squander we expect to see an ostentatious palatial mansion built, Rolls Royce, Cayenne and Ferrari bought and frequent foreign travels by First Class were the order of the day.

It would have been acceptable if the children were given excellent education and medical care and the housekeepers and other staff well taken care of. But these were secondary to material wealth to show off to neighbours.

One day, patriarch or matriarch dies (think Petronas oil dries up) and within a short period of time, the expenses (imagine maintaining a palatial mansion – think Putrajaya; the Rolls Royce and other luxury cars; and costs of First Class foreign travel and so on) exceeds income, which inevitably eats into what was left to the heirs. It will then be a matter of time before the mansion becomes unsightly because of poor maintenance and the cars left idle in the garage.

Now, can we imagine Malaysia without the iconic Twin Towers and other glorious items mentioned earlier? Comments in Rocky Bru were mainly in favour of Dr. Mahathir and against Lim Kit Siang and the main arguments were that LKS opposed NSE and Penang Bridge but now seem cannot do without them. Good point but we should understand that LKS and other oppositionists had for the past 40 years, been fighting against unduly high costs of any project because of rampant corruption. NSE was admittedly used to save the finances of Umno. In any other country, the party would have been thrown out at the following general elections. But our situation is unique in that the majority are for special privileges to the majority and Umno happens to be a racial party championing the majority race!

Even with the important infrastructure items like NSE and Penang Bridge, it could have saved billions if there were open tenders and fair agreements and I would put those extra billions (including compensations in lieu of toll revisions as a result of lop-sided agreements) as squander to the nation.

Putrajaya and its high costs of maintenance, plus future costs to the travelling public (and government employees who continue to live in KL) because of necessary dealings with government departments could have been avoided altogether if the expenditures were concentrated on KL on improving its public transport system instead. I would consider this as squander because it fed the ego of one man. As a comparison, we should take a look at No.10 Downing Street, the home and office of Prime Minister of Britain which seem acceptable for umpteen years.

The delusion of grandeur in having an iconic Twin Towers which happened to be the tallest building in the world for a short period of time, speaks further of another egoistic venture. A crony made enough to have his own building next to them.

The F1 Race Track could have been a present for a son's passion for fast cars. The fact that even Lee Kuan Yew praised the idea because it brought exceptional world publicity must have been an endorsement which is priceless, but then, since when has LKY been a good example to Malaysia?

Anyway, there is a general consensus on the fact that all major projects were highly priced to provide for kickbacks which even an Umno Minister had admitted that, assuming at 20%, it costs our country Rm29 billion! And that must be a conservative estimate, coming from the ruling party!

Now, coming back to my earlier analogy. Malaysia is like a family which concentrated on showing off with material trappings but did not spend enough on ensuring the children have a good education and medical care. We have heard often of the reasons for turning down proposals for a decent minimum wage, better facilities for education and medical care (not just grand buildings but fair system with good educationists and hospital management), public transport and other things more urgent and useful than displays of First World structures but Third World mentality and maintenance.

My conclusion is that Tun Dr. Mahathir has a very big ego with grand plans and his fault was the autocratic ability in making use of Petronas windfalls which financed them during his tenure. For his choice of grandiose structures, I would consider it squander, wouldn't you?



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