Blogger Albert Point of View

22 Years Mahathir
What is achieved and what went wrong.

Achieved:
Malaysia recognised as a respectable nation, although the past few years 'west-bashing' of dr M has done more harm than good.
Average income of Malaysians went from RM 4630- in 1982 to 14.877- in 2002.
This is of course an inflated figure because of the currency peg and devaluation of the ringgit.
Overall standard of living improved.
A capital inflow 1988-1997 of 52 billion.

Not achieved:
Transparency in goverment.
End to corruption.
Cronyism.

What went out of the window:
Press freedom.
Free judiciary.
Free market credentials.
(Cronies cannot go bankrubt, dr M stated that himself (Renong) )

What has been wasted on behalf of the future generation:
25 BILLION is squandered through misadventures (Perwaja, Bakun, cureency speculation by central bank)
20 BILLION total need for revival of MAS, take over of LTR and several others mainly public transport.
Billions in overspending, than the yen surged by 70% and the debts went from big to huge.
Budget overspending since the economic crises.
So called revival of the economy.

What has been achieved for the nation as a whole:
Landmarks of world status, but money wasted.
(Sepang Circuit,Petronas Towers,Airport Sepang and name it)
An economy that will collapse when the dollar goes down a lot.
Companies up to their neck in 'cheap' debt because borrowing is cheap.
General public up to their neck in debt, because borrowing is pushed through their throats.
An industry that absolutely cannot compete on world scale.
A banking industry that is 20 years behind with Europe!
A judiciary that is hopeless, slow and inefficient.
A bunch of parlementarians that cannot be critisised, if you do they will sue you on the spot.

Total of probably 60 billion plus to be coughed up by the future generation for dr M's adventures.
Privatisation and creation of heavy industry miserably failed.
The only one making a bit of money is Proton, but thats only because of protection agains foreign competition.
So thats temporary, they will disappear in the future. Turnover is way to small.

Press surpression made sure that hardly anyone believes a printed letter of a newspaper.
TV is terrible, there are NO checks and balances in this country,
only cheques and balances, and those cheques get falsified and cost another xxx million and the balance is creative accounting.
The way he treated opponents is beyond any description, and really stinks.
He did not trust anyone around him.

20 Years left a bitter taste for the nation, allthough denied of course.

If he left 10 years earlier yes, he might have gone in history as a nation builder.
Now? Time will learn, but i doubt it will be a pleasant memory.
UMNO will deny that for ever of course, but history will give them a report figure too.
And elections are on the way