Mahathir unveils crony list in counterattack

Mahathir unveils crony list in counterattack

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's party, trying to bury damaging allegations of cronyism, on Saturday released a list of big government projects it said were awarded to family and friends of his former deputy.

The list of 27 projects valued at 34 billion ringgit ($9 billion) was posted at the annual general assembly of Mahathir's United Malays National Organization (UMNO).

It was the second year in a row that UMNO sought to counter allegations of cronyism and corruption made by supporters of jailed former finance minister Anwar Ibrahim by trying to link him and his associates to lucrative government projects.

Pasted on boards outside the UMNO meeting hall, the list contained the names of privatized projects which were awarded from 1993 to June this year in the rail, road and power sectors.

The list was entitled "Award of privatized projects to supporters of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim through the Economic Planning Unit" -- another reminder that Anwar remained uppermost in UMNO members' minds despite his being behind bars.

Other lists showed hundreds of Bumiputra, or ethnic Malay, individuals and companies given special share allocations between 1993 and 1998 under a government affirmative-action plan. Anwar was finance minister during the period.

Since his sacking in September, Anwar has repeatedly accused Mahathir of nepotism and cronyism, and called for overhauling business ties between the private and public sectors.

Anwar, once a step from the premiership, is serving a six-year jail term after being convicted in April on four corruption charges. He is now on trial on one count of sodomy.

Anwar's sacking split UMNO ranks and provoked unprecedented street protests against Mahathir, who must call elections before June 2000.

"The purpose of the release is to show what is going on. There has been so much accusation of cronyism, so much talk of giving favors, so take a look and decide for yourself," Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said at the UMNO meeting.

Abdullah did not know if the list was the surprise announcement which Mahathir had said he would make at the annual assembly, the most closely watched annual political event.

Mahathir's pledge to announce a surprise drove up the stock market in recent days. When he failed to deliver a surprise in his keynote speech on Friday, the stock market fell back.

Ibrahim Ali, minister in the Prime Minister's Department, said the lists originated from the Economic Planning Unit and the Finance Ministry.

The government is mulling releasing another list to show the benefactors from the listing of four large government-controlled companies on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange, Ibrahim said.

He said the naming of alleged Anwar backers was to show that if Mahathir's associates had received big projects and share allocations, so had those close to Anwar.

"We are saying that nepotism, cronyism is not an issue. We are not blaming the friends of Anwar, his father, his brothers, for getting the projects. We just want to tell the public that everybody got something," Ibrahim told reporters.