What’s Old Is New: Malaysia Moves Forward and Brings Old Habits With It

Nearly 100 years old, Mahathir bin Mohamad recently gave interviews where he harkened back to his years serving as Malaysia’s prime minister over two stints, from 1981 to 2003, then 2018 to 2020. 

Time magazine described Mahathir as a “complex and contradictory character.” That is hard to dispute. He was a champion but also a harsh critic of ethnic Malays, a destroyer and creator of patronage networks, a detractor of American and Israeli foreign policy who welcomed investment from the US and other countries, and a former medical doctor who became a political strongman. 

Among Malays, he was popular enough to return to power in 2018 amid the 1MBD scandal, a stunning corruption case in which insiders embezzled $4.5 billion of public funds. Criminal justice officials today are working overtime to enact new rules to make such corruption rarer, even as it persists. 

Skeptics at the New York Times asked Mahathir to justify antisemitic comments he’d made in the past. A Muslim who ran a majority Muslim nation and advocated for the world’s Muslims to take political stands against injustice, he defended himself, reaffirming the atrocities of the Holocaust but condemning Israelis for brutalizing the Palestinians. 

Mahathir represents the end of Malaysia’s transition from British colonial status to a country trying not only to survive but thrive in a new world order. 

Viewed as a business-friendly nation, Malaysia was one of the fast-growing Asian economies, notching up a 51 percent increase in exports to the US in the month before American President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on much of the world, noted Nikkei Asia. Exports to the US, especially electronics, are vital to the country’s economy. 

At the same time, Reuters added, diplomats were discussing how Malaysian state-owned oil and gas company Petronas could purchase natural gas from Commonwealth LNG’s Louisiana refinery. 

Malaysia is not beholden to the US, however. Current Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is also talking with Chinese officials to construct an “equatorial spaceport” in Malaysia that would have “strategic, economic, and geopolitical implications,” wrote Space News. 

Other projects were undoubtedly discussed at Ibrahim’s recent meeting with President Xi Jinping, where the two leaders appeared close, as a Chinese government press release illustrated. 

Still, analysts say the political landscape has changed much since Mahathir was in charge five years ago. 

One aspect of that change is how corruption has risen to become an important issue for Malaysians. Earlier this year, authorities tried to stop an anti-corruption protest. But now the government is considering a criminal investigation into Mahathir over a territorial settlement with Singapore, in which he withdrew Malaysia’s attempt to challenge a previous ruling on three islets. It has also asked Mahathir’s sons to disclose the sources of their wealth. 

At the same time, public anger has been growing over Anwar’s bailout of Malaysian oil and gas services provider Sapura Energy amid a corruption probe. Anwar has insisted Sapura Energy’s case was different from a typical corporate bailout, arguing the funds were specifically meant to settle the company’s debts to vendors and prevent disruptions to the country’s oil and gas sector. 

However, Hassan Karim, a lawmaker from the PM’s own party, the People’s Justice Party, has called Anwar out, saying the government’s action is “the definition of a bailout” and comparing Anwar’s justification to Mahathir’s argument when he bailed out his son’s troubled shipping company in 1998, the South China Morning Post wrote.  

“So the arguments and reasons given by the administration of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim are the same as those given by Mahathir before, namely that the bailout is necessary for the country’s national interest and the interests of the Malays,” he said. “So not much has actually changed in the leadership of our country from the time of Mahathir to the time of Anwar.”