A balance sheet for former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's era suggests that he has much to answer for. His penchant for expensive prestigious projects is well known. These include the new administrative capital in Putrajaya, with the prime minister's palatial official residence at its centre, the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), the F1 race track in Sepang, the Petronas KLCC (Kuala Kumpur City Centre) Twin Towers and Dayabumi, among many others.

He has also been associated with expensive speculative failures, most notably the massive speculation on sterling before its collapse in September 1992. Another well-known failure was the costly attempt to corner the tin market in the early 1980s, which resulted in immediate losses of well over half a billion ringgit and incalculable losses due to the collapse of the tin mining industry.

Corporate losses absorbed by the government over the last two decades have also reached new dimensions. The steel corporation Perwaja is probably the most spectacular failure, with losses exceeding RM10 billion by the mid-1990s. Before its acquisition by the Bank of Commerce, Bank Bumiputra Malaysia had been recapitalised several times at the cost of several billion ringgit. There has yet to be a careful accounting of the losses associated with the privatisation and re-nationalisation exercises since the mid-1980s.