Mahathir’s Unity Call Rings Hollow Amid Corruption Cloud

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is once again lecturing Malays about unity, warning that the scramble to be named prime minister is meaningless without winning 112 parliamentary seats. On the surface, his words sound like sage advice. In reality, they reek of hypocrisy from a man whose own political legacy is defined by division — and whose family now sits under the shadow of an anti-corruption probe spanning multiple continents. 

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, working with the UK’s National Crime Agency, is investigating assets allegedly linked to Mahathir, his sons, and his network of associates. These holdings stretch across the UK, Canada, Switzerland, and Japan. Declarations reveal Mokhzani Mahathir’s fortune at nearly RM1 billion and Mirzan’s at RM246 million. For a man who once posed as the champion of the ordinary Malay, the sheer scale of his family’s wealth is obscene. It places them in a different world entirely — detached from the struggles of the rakyat he still claims to advise.

And the dynasty does not end with his children. Mahathir’s grandchildren are stepping confidently into public life, inheriting platforms, access, and influence as if by birthright. In another era, such privilege might have been hidden. Today, in a world of constant social media exposure, their lives of insulation and opportunity are impossible to conceal. Every curated post, every appearance at elite forums, every whisper of inherited power reinforces what ordinary Malaysians already feel: the nation is divided into two worlds. One is lived by political dynasties who are untouchable, the other by the rakyat who face rising costs, shrinking wages, and unending struggle.

This is not just about Mahathir. It is about the system he embodies. Nepotism has been institutionalised in Malaysia. Cabinet seats, party presidencies, and business concessions are recycled among family names. Institutions meant to safeguard fairness appear instead to protect dynastic continuity. The result is cynicism, disillusionment, and a hollowing out of trust in democracy. 

For ordinary Malaysians, the contrast is brutal. While they wrestle with stagnant wages, rising prices, and declining opportunities, Mahathir’s dynasty lives in another world — shielded by immense wealth, global networks, and the power of a family name. Social media has stripped away the old veil of secrecy. Every display of privilege, every public sermon about unity, every claim of moral authority only deepens public resentment.

Mahathir is not simply a former leader under investigation. He is the symbol of the rot that dynastic politics has inflicted on this country. His decades of rule created the very structures that now protect his family. His calls for Malay unity are empty when his own household exemplifies division, inequality, and entitlement.

If Malaysia is serious about renewal, it must start by dismantling the culture of dynasties and patronage that Mahathir perfected. No family, no surname, no political patriarch can be allowed to stand above the rakyat or beyond the reach of the law.

Mahathir Beban Kestabilan Politik Negara

Bekas Perdana Menteri, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad digelar sebagai Bapa Pemodenan Malaysia.

Namun, di sebalik gelaran itu, tidak dapat dinafikan bahawa gaya kepimpinan beliau juga mempunyai sisi gelapnya.

Mahathir mengamalkan gaya kepimpinan penuh taktik licik, ala Niccolo Machiavelli, yang lebih mementingkan kuasa daripada kestabilan negara.

Dalam falsafah Machiavelli, matlamat menghalalkan cara iaitu apa sahaja boleh dilakukan demi mengekalkan kuasa, walaupun mengorbankan janji, prinsip atau kestabilan negara.

Jika kita meneliti sejarah politik Malaysia, Mahathir paling ketara mengamalkan gaya kepimpinan sedemikian.

SUMBER: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/bahasa/2020/05/11/dr-m-lebih-machiavelli-daripada-machiavelli

Kemenangan Pakatan Harapan (PH) pada Pilihan Raya Umum ke-14 (PRU-14) adalah antara peristiwa yang menyaksikan Mahathir menunjukkan gaya kepimpinan Machiavelli.

Ketika itu, Mahathir berjanji akan menyerahkan jawatan Perdana Menteri kepada Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim selepas tempoh tertentu.

Namun, janji tersebut tidak pernah ditunaikan.

Sebaliknya, Mahathir terus berdolak-dalik, memberi alasan bahawa Anwar 'perlu menunggu' atau 'belum bersedia'.

Langkah berkenaan mencetuskan kekecewaan dalam kalangan penyokong PH sendiri, seterusnya menanam benih ketidakstabilan politik yang akhirnya menyebabkan kerajaan itu tumbang pada Februari 2020.

Krisis itu bukan sahaja merosakkan kepercayaan rakyat terhadap Mahathir, tetapi juga menjejaskan keyakinan para pelabur terhadap kestabilan politik Malaysia.

SUMBER: https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/623472

Gaya politik Mahathir juga sinonim dengan strategi 'pecah dan perintah'.

Sepanjang dua era kepimpinannya, Mahathir sering mewujudkan blok politik kecil yang saling bersaing untuk memastikan kedudukan beliau tidak tergugat.

Pada era 1980-an dan 1990-an, Mahathir terkenal kerana melemahkan beberapa pesaing politiknya dalam UMNO seperti Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah dan Tun Musa Hitam.

Mahathir sekali lagi menggunakan taktik sama pada era pasca-PRU-14 apabila menyokong pihak tertentu dan kemudiannya beralih arah apabila kepentingan dirinya terancam.

Kesannya, politik Malaysia menjadi tidak stabil, penuh dengan episod 'lompat parti' dan perebutan kuasa yang tiada penghujung.

SUMBER: https://harapanmadani.com/strategi-pecah-dan-perintah-taktik-lapuk-yang-takkan-berjaya-lagi/

Sejak beberapa tahun kebelakangan ini, Mahathir juga semakin lantang memainkan naratif Melayu.

Beliau mendakwa orang Melayu kini 'hilang kuasa' dan 'terancam', meskipun realitinya Perdana Menteri hari ini juga seorang Melayu.

Ironinya, sepanjang 22 tahun pertama beliau memimpin negara, jurang ekonomi Melayu dan Bumiputera dengan kaum lain tidak banyak berubah.

Kini, Mahathir kembali mengasaskan pelbagai 'gerakan Melayu' seperti Gerakan Tanah Air dan Proklamasi Orang Melayu namun semuanya gagal mendapat sokongan luas.

Penggunaan sentimen perkauman ini jelas merupakan salah satu taktik Machiavelli iaitu menimbulkan rasa takut demi mendapatkan kesetiaan rakyat.

Namun, strategi tersebut semakin ditolak kerana rakyat, khususnya generasi muda yang lebih mengutamakan isu kos sara hidup, pekerjaan dan integriti kepimpinan berbanding retorik kaum.

SUMBER: https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/659484

Tuntasnya, gaya kepimpinan Machiavelli yang beliau amalkan seperti janji yang tidak ditunaikan, retorik perkauman serta strategi pecah dan perintah telah menjadi faktor utama ketidakstabilan politik negara.

Apa yang beliau anggap sebagai 'strategi' sebenarnya adalah beban yang masih membayangi Malaysia hingga kini.

Jika benar Mahathir mahu terus menyumbang kepada negara, sudah tiba masanya untuk beliau meninggalkan politik kuasa dan memberi laluan kepada generasi baharu.

Negara memerlukan kestabilan, bukan lagi permainan licik seorang ahli politik veteran yang enggan melepaskan cengkaman kuasanya.

Mahathir's 100 Years In Malaysia

On July 10, 2025, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad turned 100. His longevity ensures that he towers over Malaysia’s modern history, but his centennial is less a celebration than a reckoning. Mahathir was the man who built modern Malaysia’s skyline and its economic base, yet he also entrenched the racialised politics and institutional weaknesses that continue to hold the country back. His story is not just one of nation-building, but of how power wielded too long and too tightly corrodes the very foundations it claims to protect. 

Mahathir’s first premiership, from 1981 to 2003, is remembered for industrialisation, foreign investment, and ambitious megaprojects. Malaysia enjoyed years of strong growth, and his decision to defy the IMF during the 1997–98 financial crisis gave him international notoriety. But this achievement was inseparable from a political order that he personalised and bent to his will. His economic bargain was built on the expansion of the New Economic Policy, embedding Malay privileges across education, business and the civil service. This created a new Malay middle class, but also entrenched dependency, blunted competitiveness, and hardened identity politics into permanent fault lines.

At the core of this bargain was Mahathir’s own worldview, set out in The Malay Dilemma (1970). Instead of rejecting colonial stereotypes about Malays, he repackaged them as a call for state intervention. Though he later softened his more extreme claims, the logic—that Malays required quotas and protection—remained central to his policies. The result was a system that uplifted some but institutionalised entitlement, leaving a legacy of division and mediocrity that still shapes Malaysian politics today.

Mahathir’s willingness to centralise power further warped the political system. The 1987 Operation Lalang crackdown, which saw over 100 detained, and the 1988 judicial crisis, which destroyed the independence of the courts, marked turning points in Malaysia’s democratic decline. Both were justified as necessary for order and stability, but they left deep institutional scars. Mahathir proved adept at delivering growth, but his style hollowed out the checks and balances that might have safeguarded Malaysia against the excesses of later leaders.

His return in 2018 at age 92 was a political masterstroke, but also a final act of hubris. By uniting a fragmented opposition, he toppled the Barisan Nasional government and rode the wave of public anger over 1MDB. For a moment, he reinvented himself as a reformist saviour. Yet his instinct remained to concentrate power in his own hands, illustrated by his unilateral appointment of Latheefa Koya to lead the anti-graft commission. Within two years, the coalition collapsed, and Mahathir resigned in the belief that he would be recalled. This time, the country moved on without him. 

His final years in electoral politics ended in humiliation. In the 2022 general election, Mahathir’s party Pejuang was wiped out and he lost his own seat in Langkawi, forfeiting his deposit. It was an extraordinary fall for a man who once bestrode Malaysian politics like a colossus. Yet even out of office, he remains locked in battle with his onetime protégé and now nemesis, Anwar Ibrahim. The recent controversy over his children’s declared wealth, and his denunciation of Anwar as “the greatest liar,” underline how Mahathir continues to fight old wars rather than confront the legacies of his own system.

The paradox of Mahathir is stark. He scolds Malays for complacency even as he built the very structures that fostered dependency. He rails against corruption yet presided over the creation of a political–business nexus that paved the way for scandals like 1MDB. He mocks global autocrats while embodying authoritarian instincts at home. He jokes about being a “dictator who resigned twice,” but the truth is that he never envisioned a Malaysia in which he was not indispensable.

At 100, Mahathir remains both the builder and the divider. He modernised Malaysia, lifted millions out of poverty, and gave the nation international visibility. But he also left behind a brittle political culture where identity trumps ideas, patronage outpaces merit, and institutions serve personalities rather than principles. His career offers not just inspiration but a warning: bold leadership without strong institutions breeds dependency, corruption, and division.

The challenge for Malaysia now is to escape Mahathir’s long shadow. It must preserve ambition for growth while dismantling the structures of racial entitlement and political patronage that he entrenched. It must move from protectionism to competitiveness, from personalised rule to institutional integrity. Mahathir’s centenary should be remembered less as a celebration of his power than as a reminder of the price Malaysia has paid for it.