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.