黄大志：马哈迪的政治遗产

1981年马哈迪继承胡先翁成为马来西亚第四任首相，一当就是23年，一直到2004年才因年近80，才安排阿都拉巴达维继承大位。马哈迪任相开始的头六年，还算励精图治，趁著从第二次石油危机赚取的丰富外汇，积极发展工业，引进外资、改善基础设施，并采用向东学习路线。这间中虽有错失，譬如发生在香港的土著金融丑闻，涉及一场国营银行25亿令吉的欺诈和贪腐案件，以及为了在伦敦金属交易市场扶持锡市，使国家亏损10多亿令吉等等，但总的来说，成绩还算及格。

然而，1987年的巫统主席争夺战，造成巫统严重分裂，为了巩固巫统的统治地位，马哈迪不惜一切代价以钱位拉拢对手拉沙里阵营的另一半回笼。从此马哈迪偏重的是巫统领导层对他个人的忠诚，而宁愿对现有的贪腐恶化采取怂恿态度。对此，我们能理解马哈迪为何坚持兼任内政部长的缘由，因为内政部长监管警察部队和控制反贪污局。另外，马哈迪也觉察到，只要巫统一党独大，以马来人的人口比例逐年上升，以及对巫统有利的马来选区的划分格局，走向偏袒的激化马来种族主义路线，巫统就可以长期掌握政权。

然而，马哈迪掌相的23年间，怂恿贪腐泛滥横行，最终导致继承马哈迪上位的纳吉政府因一马公司等丑闻而在2018年的全国大选倒台。归根结底，马哈迪执政留下的政治恶果可概括成三项，即马来种族偏激主义、朋党贪腐机制和种族分化与马来人内部两极化。

马来种族偏激主义
种族偏激主义有两种表现形式，一是倾全国之力以对外为目标，另一是依靠一个族群的政治优势以针对国内其他族群为压迫目标。前者最明显的例子是二战时期的德国纳粹党，后者我们可将马来西亚统内部的种族偏激派列为代表。这两类针对性不同的种族偏激主义都有一个共通性，就是它们都能通过其领导人和追随者特意渲染起煽动作用，激发族群内部对现实不满，尤其是弱势群体，纳入一种意识形态般的仇外族群理念。这理念也有两类，一是宣扬自己族群是优越的，族群外是劣等不堪的社群，美国的三K党便是一例。另一类是宣扬自己族群是英殖民时期被边缘化、不具经济竞争能力，必须得到政府长期支持与照顾，以此来达到种族经济平衡的目的，因而被列入有特殊地位的族群。政府利用公共资源援助贫困户，本应该用不分种族以个别家庭实质需求为根据的做法，却在大马的种族偏激主义下以族群划分，是非常荒谬与不公平的。

政府以族群划分，并以之来分配国家资源，其实在大马第一任首相东姑时期就已开始，但较为中庸的东姑首相的做事方式还是温和的，而且当时官僚贪腐还不严重。但随著1970年代新经济政策实施后的经济起飞，马哈迪当首相后，种族政治不断激化和官商利益越加绝对化，带来的弊病与社会危害可归纳如下：

（一）族群矛盾与社会分裂激化：通过政客散布的种族仇恨和宗教言论，破坏种族间的基本信任和撕裂社会凝聚力。由此引发执法之欠公正，产生并催生制度性歧视，使法治精神受种族偏见的影响。

（二）妨碍国家与经济发展：因族群歧视而造成人才流失，使少数族裔精英被迫流出境外，削弱国家的长远创新能力以及竞争力。受影响的还有政府企业，由于种族偏袒，政府企业高管几乎全是凭政党关系推荐上位的马来人，这些高管对所属政党的忠心更重于业绩表现，企业成绩一般，并有众多出现亏损。

（三）国内营商环境恶化：族群之间因互相猜疑而难以合作，阻碍本地经济发展。由于公共资源错配，原本可用于民生、教育等的资金，因维护种族和谐而付出高额社会成本。

（四）改革障碍：既得利益的权贵因种族政策而获益，他们会与煽动种族情绪的政客联成一气，反对政治改革，以各种理由，包括选区选票，阻碍更公平对待各族群的政策。

朋党贪腐机制
上面提到马哈迪因1987年党争后，不惜代价拉拢巫统敌对派阵营领袖回巢，从此以金钱挂帅怂恿贪腐恶习泛滥，营造和巩固了马来权贵和部分华商的既得利益，开始朋党贪腐机制的运作。理论上，马哈迪仍然以扶助马来人贫困为幌子，让马来权贵和政治核心高层垄断政府和其他与政府企业有关的发展项目合同，通过层层抽佣、回扣和外包机制，消耗国家公共开销和预算，养肥了既得利益集团。就算是农村发展业务也不例外，而真正贫穷的马来村民，所得甚少。

鉴于马哈迪和纳吉长期掌政总共30多年，朋党贪腐机制已广泛蔓延和盘根错节，高层公务领导积习难改。到了2022年公正党安华组成团结政府，想落实他之前在“烈火莫息”运动提倡的“昌明马来西亚”（Madani），意图反腐和建立一个更公平、为所有族群服务的政纲时，困难重重，因为触犯到众多有政治影响力的既得利益者。再说，团结政府内部也因国会议席需要，不得不拉拢原先就犯有贪腐嫌疑的政治人物合作组阁。说白了，安华想跟前任腐败政府要员划清界限，并进行政改和反腐斗争，莫非是与虎谋皮此非？目前安华的团结政府出现众多分裂迹象，全国大选可能会提前举行，未来马来西亚的政局是否稳定，令人堪忧！

种族分化与马来人内部两极化
在大马以族群划分的种族偏激主义下，种族分化与马来人内部两极化是今天马来西亚社会与政治的特征。前者主要表现为土著（马来人）与非土著（华人、印度人等）在历史政策、文化资源和经济奋斗价值观认同上的差距所造成。后者指的是马来族群内部，出现拥有政治权力集团以直接或间接手段获得财富和其他资源者，其根源就是上面论及的马哈迪政府时期歪曲了本应用不分种族、以个别家庭实质需求来援助贫困户，结果真正受惠的是马来上层社会。这个上层集团及其利益关联社群与另一广大马来社群，包括来自高度依赖小规模农业和传统经济的乡村底层民众和城市中下层马来家庭，以及北马登嘉楼、吉兰丹和吉打和玻璃市州内受伊斯兰原教旨主义影响颇深、生活价值观不同的马来家庭。

然而，尽管马来人内部存在著强烈的两极化，也不管他们是巫统和土团的世俗派还是伊斯兰党的保守派政党，他们均倾向于激进的“马来人至上”立场，这就是马哈迪留下的最令人不安的政治遗产，因为这意味著它对非马来群体的族群排斥感。

近日来，我们常听到马来政客口中骇人听闻的“马来人的生存焦虑”。数十年来，马来政客和权贵并没有真正扶持马来中下层走进现代企业化、科技化和具竞争力的商品国际化。一般马来人最高兴的不过是取得赋给养老金的公务员职位，对需要劳碌奋斗的先进工商业领域讳莫如深、望而却步。现在政客口中的马来人生存焦虑到底又指的是什么？我们真不知它又剑指何方！

Mahathir's Political Legacy
In 1981, Mahathir succeeded Hussein Onn as the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia, serving for 23 years until 2004 when, nearing 80, he appointed Abdullah Badawi as his successor. Mahathir's first six years as Prime Minister were relatively successful, leveraging the abundant foreign exchange earned from the second oil crisis to actively develop industry, attract foreign investment, improve infrastructure, and adopt a "Look East" policy. While there were setbacks, such as the Bumiputera financial scandal in Hong Kong involving a RM2.5 billion fraud and corruption case at a state-owned bank, and the over RM1 billion loss to the country due to efforts to support the tin market in the London Metal Exchange. Overall, his performance was passable.

However, the 1987 UMNO presidential election caused a severe split within UMNO. To consolidate UMNO's rule, Mahathir spared no expense, using money and power to win back the other half of his opponent Razaleigh's camp. From then on, Mahathir prioritized the loyalty of the UMNO leadership to him personally, ignoring virtually corruption practices. This explains why Mahathir insisted on concurrently serving as Minister of Home Affairs, as this ministry oversees the police force and controls the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. Furthermore, Mahathir realized that as long as UMNO remained dominant, with the increasing proportion of Malays in the population and a favourable Malay constituency allocation, a biased approach that exacerbated Malay racism could allow UMNO to maintain power indefinitely.

However, during Mahathir's 23 years in power, rampant corruption was fostered, ultimately leading to the downfall of Najib's government in the 2018 general election due to scandals such as 1MDB. In essence, the political consequences of Mahathir's rule can be summarized in three points: Malay racial radicalism, crony corruption, and racial division and internal polarization within the Malay community.

Malay racial radicalism
Malay racial radicalism manifests in two forms: one is the mobilization of national resources for external targets, and the other is the use of a single ethnic group's political dominance to oppress other ethnic groups within the country. The most obvious example of the former is the Nazi Party in Germany during World War II, while the latter can be represented by the racial extremist factions within the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). These two types of racial radicalism, despite their different targets, share a commonality: they can both deliberately amplify and incite discontent within their respective ethnic groups, especially among the disadvantaged, by their leaders and followers, instilling a xenophobic ideology.

This ideology also has two sub-categories: one promotes the superiority of one's own ethnic group and the inferiority of others, as exemplified by the Ku Klux Klan in the United States; the other promotes the idea that one's own ethnic group was marginalized during the British colonial period, lacking economic competitiveness, and therefore requires long-term government support and care to achieve racial economic balance, thus granting them a special status. The right approach, which should be based on the actual needs of individual families regardless of race, is blocked by Malay racial radicalism, which is absurd and unfair.

The practice of government classifying countries by ethnicity and allocating national resources accordingly began during the tenure of Malaysia's first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman. However, Tunku's relatively moderate approach and the relative lack of bureaucratic corruption during his tenure was short-lived. With the economic boom following the implementation of the New Economic Policy in the 1970s, and under Mahathir Mohamad's premiership, racial politics intensified and the vested interests of officials and businesses became increasingly absolute. The resulting problems and social harms can be summarized as follows:

(a) Increased ethnic conflicts and social division: Politicians' dissemination of racial hatred and religious rhetoric undermines basic trust between races and tears apart social cohesion. This leads to unfair law enforcement, fosters and fuels systemic discrimination, and undermines the rule of law due to racial prejudice.

(b) Hinders national and economic development: Ethnic discrimination causes a brain drain, forcing minority elites to leave the country, weakening the nation's long-term innovation capacity and competitiveness. Government-owned enterprises are also affected. Due to racial bias, almost all senior executives in these enterprises are Malays who rose to power through political party connections. These executives prioritize loyalty to their parties over performance, resulting in mediocre business results and numerous losses.

(c) Deteriorating domestic business environment: Mutual suspicion among ethnic groups hinders cooperation and impedes local economic development. Due to the misallocation of public resources, funds that could have been used for public welfare and education incur high social costs in maintaining racial harmony.

(d) Obstacles to reform: The privileged elites who have benefited from racial policies collude with politicians who incite racial sentiment to oppose political reform. They use various pretexts, including constituency votes, to obstruct policies that treat all ethnic groups more fairly.

Crony Corruption Mechanism
As mentioned above, after the 1987 party strife, Mahathir spared no expense in bringing back leaders from the opposing UMNO faction. From then on, he used material incentives in exchange for loyalty, thus consolidating the vested interests of Malay elites and some Chinese businessmen. In theory, Mahathir continued to use the guise of helping impoverished Malays to allow Malay elites and high-ranking political figures to monopolize government and other government-related development project contracts. Through layers of commissions, kickbacks, and outsourcing mechanisms, he consumed national public spending enriching vested interest groups. Even rural development projects were no exception, while genuinely impoverished Malay villagers receive very little.

Given Mahathir and Najib's combined more than 30 years in power, corruption has become widespread and deeply entrenched, with high-ranking officials finding it difficult to change their ingrained habits. When Anwar Ibrahim formed the Unity Government in 2022, attempting to implement his "Madani" vision from the Reformasi movement—aiming to combat corruption and establish a fairer platform serving all ethnic groups—he faced numerous difficulties because it offended many politically influential interests. Furthermore, the Unity Government itself, needing parliamentary seats, had to recruit politicians already suspected of corruption to form a coalition government. To put it bluntly, Anwar's attempt to distance himself from corrupt former government officials and to pursue political reform and anti-corruption efforts is tantamount to courting a tiger. Currently, Anwar's Unity Government shows numerous signs of division, and the next general election may be held earlier than planned. The future stability of Malaysian politics is a cause for concern.

Racial polarization and internal Malay polarization are characteristics of contemporary Malaysian society and politics. The former is primarily manifested in the disparities between indigenous (Malay) and non-indigenous (Chinese, Indians, etc.) groups resulting from the past colonial and current policies, differences in cultural features, and values in economic pursuits. The latter refers to the emergence within the Malay community of politically powerful groups who directly or indirectly acquire wealth and other resources. This stems from the former Mahathir government's distortion of the principle of providing aid to the poor based on individual family needs, regardless of race. Consequently, Mahathir’s approach had led to a result that truly benefited the upper Malay group. This upper-class group and its associated communities are intertwined with a broader Malay community, including rural lower-class residents heavily reliant on small-scale agriculture and traditional economies, urban lower-middle-class Malay families, and Malay families in northern Malaysia's Terengganu, Kelantan, Kedah, and Perlis states who are deeply influenced by Islamic fundamentalism and possess different social values.

Despite strong polarization within the Malay community, regardless of whether they belong to the secular wing of UMNO and Bersatu or the conservative party of PAS, they all tend towards a radical "Malay supremacy" stance. This is Mahathir's most disturbing political legacy, as it implies a sense of ethnic exclusion towards non-Malay groups.

Recently, we have frequently heard Malay politicians spouting alarming notions of "Malay survival anxiety." For decades, Malay politicians and the elite have not truly supported the Malay lower and middle classes in entering the modern, technologically advanced, and internationally competitive market. The average Malay is most pleased with obtaining a pension-granting civil service position, remaining hesitant and daunted by the demanding work and struggle required in advanced industrial and commercial sectors. What exactly is this "Malay survival anxiety" that politicians are talking about now? We truly don't know where it's headed!

Wong Tai-Chee