Malaysian Election

[Maggie5]

Dr Mahathir at 92 might be the oldest person elected, quite a surprise as most pundits thought that Najib Razak would win.

Have friends (Chinese) in Malaysia and they delighted.

Will be interesting if he keeps campaign promises, reverse GST, pardon Anwar etc.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-...hir-claims-win-but-results-not-yet-in/9745498

 

[midorigreenwood]

Mahathir now good bloke??? What a turnaround


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[RW]

My friend in Singapore who is working in KL at the moment just texted me with "Malaysia boleh" - loosely translated as "Malaysia can do". Not sure where they'll go from here, but people seem to be glad to be rid of Najib.

 

[Maggie5]

My friend in Singapore who is working in KL at the moment just texted me with "Malaysia boleh" - loosely translated as "Malaysia can do". Not sure where they'll go from here, but people seem to be glad to be rid of Najib.

Message I received was 'Malaysia Reborn'. Must have really disliked the outgoing PM.

Will be funny if Anwar does get pardoned then somehow becomes PM pursues Najib for money laundering.

 

[DaRick]

My mother and her friends, whom have always been hostile to the Malay-dominated Barisan Nasional party (not being Malay themselves), are delighted.

Najib was widely perceived as corrupt (more so than usual, anyway) and so he was always much more likely to lose an election than his predecessors.

I never expected to see Mahatir back in power, though, especially at his age.

When he was last in power, Mahatir was not exactly a dictator, but he did display more than a few authoritarian instincts and was arguably willing to subvert justice for his own ends (jailing Anwar Ibrahim in the late 90's for 'sodomy', for example). It will be interesting to see how he governs this time.

 

[Established1870]

Isn't there a divide between the local Malay and the Chinese populations in Malaysia? Remember reading that Chinese dominate business over there.

 

[Forward Press]

Pros:
- At 92 years old, Mahathir wouldn't go on for too long anyway
- Promised pardon and transfer of PM to Anwar - the real opposition leader
- Could also argue that at his age it's Mahathir wanting to leave a positive legacy and not just topping up his EBF
- Najib was corrupt as f*** - siphoned at least 1 billion dollars from 1MDB to his and his family's bank accounts - who knows what else he wasn't caught for?
- After 61 years of constant suppression and gerrymandering the opposition deserves a go
- The opposition coalition did not have an Islamic sharia law party this time around and thus is quite a moderate coalition

Cons:
- Najib was considered Mahathir's protege - and where do you think he picked up his corrupt practices?
- Mahathir wasn't exactly considered a benevolent leader - brutal crackdowns on any who opposed him
- Might be the start of a transition to put his son in power and to leave Anwar to rot in jail

Overall, I think this is a real positive change. But we can only really know for certain once the new government serves out their first term and Mahathir really hands over power.

Corruption is still endemic and people still leave Malaysia by their thousands because the economy is staggering there, but at least you won't have Najib and his wife and their cronies stealing billions from the country. Next step should be to prosecute them over 1MDB.

 

[Forward Press]

Isn't there a divide between the local Malay and the Chinese populations in Malaysia? Remember reading that Chinese dominate business over there.

Essentially yes. I won't go into the history of Chinese diasporas in South East Asia but in essence the Chinese minority in Malaysia dominates business but not in politics. Affirmative action policies heavily favour the ethnic Malays but it doesn't stop the Chinese from being generally more wealthy and successful than the rest of the population.

 

[The Passenger]

To any rational person the 1MDB scandal should be regarded as one of the great political scandals of modern history.

Yet not only did Najib Razak survive this, it barely rates a mention in the western media. This does make sense once you realise the major parties involved (Goldman Sachs and The House of Saud).

 

[Gough]

To any rational person the 1MDB scandal should be regarded as one of the great political scandals of modern history.

Yet not only did Najib Razak survive this, it barely rates a mention in the western media. This does make sense once you realise the major parties involved (Goldman Sachs and The House of Saud).

Has now been barred from leaving the country and could face investigation.

 

[HairyO]

Lets wait and see if he does pardon Ibrahim. The guy was an evil crook last time around.

 

[madmug]

Lets wait and see if he does pardon Ibrahim. The guy was an evil crook last time around.

Its the old thing of 'be careful what you wish for'.

I guess the people would be grateful for any sort of reduction in the level of corruption. Political, financial &/or legal. It'll take a long time for such corruption to wash out of their system, if ever.

 

[Forward Press]

Corruption is endemic in Asia, especially South East Asia. Taking bribes and receiving favours is factored into the price of contracts.

It's a cultural practice that would take generations to eradicate. Mahathir got away with it because he wasn't as blatant or excessive about it as Najib and Malaysia was growing rapidly under his administration (with the exception of the Asian financial crisis). Malaysians accept that a bit will be skimmed off at the top and they don't care that much until they start finding themselves unemployed.