This was boom time, and all well-connected individuals made money. Those not so well-connected could
only look on and hope for the crumbs that were left behind. Mahathir, Anwar, Daim and their cronies did
not really seem to care one way or the other, although they kept reassuring everyone that what they were
doing was in the interests of all the people.

As the saying goes, it was not what you knew - your technical know-how - but who you knew, that
mattered in Malaysia at that time. The Economic Planning Unit of the Prime Minister’s Department which
was charged with overseeing the privatization process was the recipient and processor of many privatization
proposals became known as the Economic Photostating Unit as proposals by less-connected individuals
and their companies were rejected but turned up later and were approved under the different names of
better-connected individuals and their companies.

(The head of the Economic Photostating Unit has now been appointed the Governor of the Central Bank,
after the forced resignations of the former Governor and Deputy Governor which took place before
Anwar's dismissal).

The whole process lacked transparency and accountability. There were no official guidelines for privatization
and no process of appeal if one’s proposal was rejected or delayed or just disappeared. Officially, anyone
could come out with a proposal and if the ideas behind it were unique and viability of the project could be
established, then that person or company was given a right of exclusivity to develop and privatize such a
project.

Unofficially, these projects were only given to cronies and those with the right connections. Mahathir and
Daim controlled or had a hand in almost every privatized project or other projects which required
government approval. The lucrative access to the top leadership of the ruling coalition was selectively
blocked and jealously guarded by the cronies and administrators all the way down the line. The cronies
became the new breed of Muslims, called New Malays or Melayu Baru, a term which was to take on
derisive and negative connotations because of their many misdeeds.

There are many examples of the way existing rules were bent or new rules and policies formulated to favour
cronies and their businesses. This resulted in the singular failure of the much-vaunted Malaysian regulatory
system. One of these was the manner in which Halim Saad, then still a young manager who had been
groomed by Daim in Peremba, obtained control of a large chunk of the UMNO assets from the Official
Assignee without any open tender being called, including controlling shares in a suspended public-listed
company known as United Engineers.
 
 
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