your say 'Faction? Spare the euphemism. Blatant lies more accurate. Other countries have the curse of natural disasters, Malaysia has Mahathir.'

Dr M memoirs: Between fact and fiction

Abasir: When you really think about it, Dr Mahathir Mohamad's actual legacy is the quality called "unflinching shamelessness" which he has successfully and generously passed on to the hordes of cultivated rent-seekers.

This enduring quality manifests itself repeatedly (as in the recent Carcosa-Datuk Triad show), and which will, like a millstone on the country's neck, ceaselessly drag it down to the 'failed-state' status.

What is intriguing is that those endowed with this quality, wear it proudly as a badge of honour.

Pemerhati: In short, Mahathir's book is full of half truths and outright lies. One would really feel sorry for anyone who wades through 843 pages of garbage written by this man who, together with his cronies, stole billions of the people's money through various crooked deals and severely degraded the public service so that he could plunder the country without any hindrance.

Now Abdul Taib Mahmud, Najib Razak and their cronies continue to benefit from the corrupt system created by Mahathir as they are also able to similarly steal billions of the taxpayers' money with impunity.

Survivor: On TDM (Mahathir) and LKY (Lee Kuan Yew), I think it would be better for LKY not to continue his role as minister mentor but to fully retire from all politics and government.

He should now spent a larger part of the remaining part of his life giving seminars and speeches as invited dignitary and be recognised as a grand statesman like Nelson Mandela. Only this way, can he be far ahead of TDM.

TDM's reputation is beyond redemption. He is going to bring to his grave and into history as a ruthless villain who destroy his adversaries without batting an eyelid. That's his legacy which the people will remember.

Anonymous_5fb: With his memoirs ‘A Doctor in the House', Mahathir has lost completely whatever little bit of credibility left with him. What a waste for a maverick that could have made himself as someone great in history.

Onyourtoes: I dislike Barry Wain's comments with regard to Mahathir's contributions to economic development.

This country would have grown much faster and more equitably without him. This country would have been more competitive and saddled with less distortions if he has not put in all the impediments that stifle genuine businesses and promote crony enterprises that the country is still supporting even today.

Virtually all his projects are sweethearts deals meant for his cronies, friends and family. He can say whatever he wants because it is not time yet for him to answer all these in court, whether through civil and criminal proceedings.

I hope he lives long enough to see through all these. This is a man who did all the evils and disservice to the country and yet can still go around boasting and claiming to be a great nationalist.

Fearless: I agree with Onyourtoes. Malaysia's economic miracle attributed to Mahathir is a myth. Every country in the region grew, some even more than Malaysia. If not for the corruption, Malaysia would be nearer to Singapore, if not more.

Faction? Spare the euphemism. Blatant lies more accurate. Other countries have the curse of natural disasters, Malaysia has Mahathir.

Swipenter: Mahathir is indeed a man of faction. How else can you explain all the distortions he made up to justify his policies actions and his connivance of what was happening under his tenure - things like money politics, nepotism, cronyism, racial discrimination, etc.

He did not built a united Malaysia based on social justice. Instead he engineered a Malaysia based on racial and religious differences.

Cala: Is Mahathir a primitive man? Writing a book is a serious endeavour meant to put down one's thoughts about life, about experience one has gone through truthfully for the sake of future generations.

But due to the lack of full impact of "evolutionary theory" had on certain individuals caused by cultural deficiency or other unknown factors, many authors would not treat their writings seriously as if they are involving in scientific ventures.

To Comte (Ritzer, 2008, pp. 16-18), one would only be enlightened if one passed through three stages, the way the West did:

i) Theological stage (before 1300) that recognised supernatural power as the root cause of everything;

ii) Metaphysical stage (1300-1800) accepted some kind of abstract forces that nature controlled everything; and

iii) Positivistic stage (after 1800) characterised the belief in science (synonymous with telling the truth).

In sum, Mahathir is a primitive man as seen from his poor grasp of the philosophy of science.

Black Mamba: Barry Wain is the only person who can put Mahathir in a corner as he had interviewed him before and done numerous research on him. Mahathir's memoirs can't run too far of from Wain's already documented book.

Sandakan: Bookshops will have a problem of where to place Mahathir's memoirs - in the fiction or non-fiction section.

 

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