BY: CATHERINE SAW

When former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohammad presided as UMNO strongman, he became the purveyor of money politics in this country which has been the mainstay in Malaysian politics ever since.

Thanks to Mahathir’s introduction into the arena of politics in Malaysia the pelf he wrought through means dubious was used to sway voters and politicians in his favour and is fully responsible for the nation to be deemed as a rogue state.

But Mahathir has no qualms about using his pelf to secure votes for landslide general election victories or buying over elected representatives into his camp as this was the way he tinkered with parliamentary democracy.

For decades, Mahathir held sway over the horse trading that went on in Malaysian politics. This was the simple reason why he was able to hold on to power for so long as when you calculate his worth and value as a leader it was really worth nothing much.

Mahathir is often credited for developing Malaysia, but whatever good he did like setting up the physical infrastructure for a modern state was negated by the stark fact that he committed much abuses and wrongdoings while in power.

When he was in power, all dissent and criticism was silenced by the now-abolished Internal Security Act and it is only due to the advent of social media platforms that the truth of his role as a half-past-six politician is coming out into the open.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE

** The views expressed on this opinion is of the writer and not the publisher