KUALA LUMPUR: The cronyism during the Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad’s 22 years tenure as the Prime Minister is worse than standard corruption.
Sebastian Loh in his open letter to a local news portal (Free Malaysia Today) said Tun Mahathir could not back away from the massive ecosystem of cronyism that he created.
“Call it the ‘Crony Industrial Complex, Mahathirism means that there is always a crony hiding around the corner waiting to beat you up and steal your money.
“Let say you are a 25-year-old just starting work in 1998. You have to buy a car because Mahathir is obsessed with Proton and can’t be bothered with public transportation.
“You cannot afford a foreign car because Mahathir’s tariffs make them too expensive. So, you take a loan and grudgingly buy a national car, Proton.
“Proton, Mahathir’s infamous baby, happily takes your money and hands part of it to crony suppliers who sell automotive parts to the company at above-market rates.
“Having a car is convenient, but now you have pay road tolls on a regular basis. Mahathir signed outlandishly lopsided agreements in favour of crony highway operators,” he said.
Sebastian said Mahathir had spread its cronyism to various sectors of the economy and infrastructure in the country.
Stating the ride-hailing versus the conventional taxi services saga, he claimed that the industry was ‘infested’ with Mahathir’s cronies preying on taxi’s drivers with absurdly expensive taxi permits.
“It is worth noting that Tun Mahathir recently claimed that Grab was hurting taxi drivers and promised to review the e-hailing services if Pakatan Harapan (PH) comes to power.
“But who benefits from such a review but crony cab companies?” he said.
He said move by the government’s efforts to control and ‘curb’ the cronyism had brought a great impact to cronies.
“Since Khazanah and the Employees Provident Fund's (EPF) bought PLUS Malaysia Bhd (PLUS) in 2010, popular highways like the North South Expressway, the Penang Bridge, and Second Link have not seen even a single rise in toll fees.
“Now, there are plenty of rich businessmen supporting Mahathir’s campaign to be the prime minister again.
“These are the people who Mahathir regularly claims are being harassed by tax authorities,” he said.