I REFER to Noramtaz Abdullah’s letter on Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s record (”More negatives than positives” — NST, June 14).

I am bemused as to why so many Malaysians are bashing Dr Mahathir and his legacy.

I believe that his impact as prime minister had a lot more positives than negatives.

I am not a member of any political party nor from the government administration. I would like to present my point of view on the issues raised by Noramtaz.

The development of Kuala Lumpur City Centre and Pe-tronas Twin Towers was a private initiative to redevelop what was previously the Ampang Turf Club.

The property value of not only KLCC but also its surrounding areas has increased tremendously due to this redevelopment.

Without such redevelopment, that area now would be hosting the weekly horse races which caused traffic jams in that area as they did in the 1980s.

Subang Airport was becoming too congested and is too close to highly-populated areas.

So what was so wrong about building an airport in Sepang that would handle future projected needs?

The Sepang F1 Circuit gave Ma-laysia international exposure. Petronas is not even among the world’s largest oil companies but its name is well- known due to its involvement in F1.

Highways needed to be built. The government would not have been able to build so many in such a short period without increasing government revenues by increasing taxes that would burden the population.

Having a build-operate-transfer concept for tolled highways was the best solution available.

Those who wish to use these highways would be required to pay.

About the Malaysia-Sumatra highway, I am certain that it never materialised because the government found that there was no economic value for doing so.

I expected Proton to do much better, but I am proud of it. It is our only indigenous automotive company, designing and producing the cars itself.

The automotive industry in Thailand is foreign-owned by large automotive companies. They only fabricate and manufacture in Thailand without any homegrown designs or models.

And in answer to Noramtaz, yes, our construction industry benefited from the mega developments during Dr Mahathir’s time.

We used foreign labour and expertise to build KLCC, KLIA and Sepang F1 Circuit but that was because it was a learning curve for most of us.

Today, we have many companies able to convince foreigners to award us construction projects in their own countries.

I am an engineer working for a Malaysian company contracted by Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil producer, to work on a RM20 billion development and construction project in Saudi Arabia.

There are other Malaysians and Malaysian companies doing many construction projects in the Middle East, India and China.

The return on investment for the mega projects during Dr Mahathir’s time cannot be measured by the amount of direct revenue that those projects are creating.

In Saudi Arabia, Malaysians are treated better than citizens from our neighbouring countries.

The people here say that Malaysia is the most modern and developed Islamic country.

All this is due to the great leadership that we had for more than 20 years. It wasn’t perfect, but definitely more good than bad.

ADRI HEMY ABDUL GHANI Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Source: NST – June 26, 2008