Word: lumpur
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Mokhtar now administers his far-flung holdings entirely through nominees: associates say his name hasn't appeared in Kuala Lumpur's Registry of Companies since he progressed beyond his first cattle and rice trading ventures in the 1980s. Still, there is no mistaking that he is the 76-year-old Prime Minister's new favorite son, and to many of those following his sudden rise, the story sounds all too familiar. (Mahathir did not respond to TIME's interview requests; Mokhtar declined to be interviewed.) Since the 1997 financial crisis, Malaysia has been treated by the international financial community...
...trade surplus is swelling and international bond rating agencies have been bumping up Malaysia's grades. More important, foreign investors are actually putting their money?so long withheld?back into the country. A recent bond issue by Malaysia's national oil giant Petronas was heavily subscribed. The Kuala Lumpur stock market?shunned by international investors after Mahathir temporarily imposed strict controls on the movement of money out of Malaysia in September 1998?has soared, rising about a third over the last year, a period during which Basu estimates that as much as a billion dollars has poured in from overseas...
...direction, plenty of reservations remain. Mokhtar's detractors say he appears to be just the latest rider on Malaysia's crony-go-round. "Mokhtar is enjoying a rapid rise like Halim Saad and Tajudin Ramli and is closely aligned with Mahathir," says Terence Gomez, who teaches economics at Kuala Lumpur's University of Malaya. The issue has roiled the usually placid waters of Malaysia's press. Writing in the business weekly The Edge, journalist P. Gunasegeram penned a column about Mokhtar titled, "When One Man Gets Too Much." Gunasegeram chronicles past disasters that he blames on cronyism, charges that they...
...fact, it can be hard to find anyone in Kuala Lumpur who seriously thinks that the headstrong Mahathir?who thumbed his nose at the world during the Asian crisis by imposing currency controls, a move even his critics now grudgingly concede probably shielded the country from the social dislocation seen in some Asian neighbors?has abandoned his cherished head start program for Malays. "He definitely wants the emergence of the Malay capitalist," says Megat Najmuddin Khas, who heads the Malaysian Institute of Corporate Governance. "There is nothing wrong with the policy," Megat argues?as long as the right people...
...Five years ago, Mokhtar wasn't a familiar face in Kuala Lumpur's corridors of power. According to his associates, that was largely due to his strained ties with then Finance Minister and longtime Mahathir confidant Daim. Whatever the reason, Mokhtar found several key ventures at the state level mysteriously blocked. Reports began to filter back that his name was being blackened at the highest levels of government. Finally, Mokhtar asked for an audience with the Prime Minister. For the first 20 minutes, Mahathir sat stony-faced, his arms crossed. But, Mokhtar associates say, the PM began to thaw...