Malaysia's King Lear

Malaysia's King Lear
The Economist - 12 March 2008

LIKE an emperor from a bygone age, Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s former prime minister, has left a legacy you can walk through, or at least gaze at in wonder from a high-rise window: Kuala Lumpur, with its soaring Petronas Twin Towers, its sweeping expressways, state-of-the-art monorail and metro; the still emerging new cities of Putrajaya and Cyberjaya; and indeed, Malaysia itself, with its 21st-century infrastructure and rapidly growing prosperity.

Yet that is not enough for the grand old man. He also wants a political legacy. He seems to want his party, the United Malays National Organisation (UNMO), and the coalition it dominates, the Barisan Nasional (BN), which he led for 22 years, to remain in power indefinitely.

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