Paradise Lost : Mahathir & The End of Hope
PARADISE
LOST: Mahathir & The End of Hope
takes a critical look at Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s role in Malaysia’s political
evolution and his ultimately destructive legacy of corruption, racism and
religious extremism. He inherited a nation pregnant with promise and left it
mired in division, uncertainty and instability, a grand kleptopia, a terrible
kakistocracy. It also examines the role Mahathir played in Pakatan Harapan’s
stunning 2018 electoral victory and his subsequent betrayal of the coalition he
was entrusted to lead. The end result is a nation in deep crisis, adrift in a
sea of uncertainty, unable to come to terms with its past, unwilling to make
the compromises necessary for its future.
Written by a former
Malaysian ambassador, Paradise Lost makes for sober reading. Intensely
provocative, it challenges long-established shibboleths, spotlights the dangers
now confronting the nation and argues that Malaysia’s only hope for redemption
lies in embracing and harnessing its unique multicultural identity.