It is a known and undeniable fact that politicians in Malaysia are wealthy.
Not from wealth accumulated from their investments or businesses or inheritance prior to them joining politics.
Their wealth was accumulated only after joining politics.
Many of them lived a life of opulence, rivalling or sometimes higher than some businessmen or entrepreneurs in Malaysia.
We are talking about sprawling mansions and high end luxury cars.
Far removed from the average Malaysian.
Their assets are not just what the ordinary Malaysians see but also includes real estate overseas.
Many ordinary Malaysians are always left wondering how these politicians amassed such immense wealth considering they are politicians.
Yes, inclusive of all the allowances, they could be drawing on average a total of RM100,000 a month, tax free.
But even then, that quantum would not allow them to live the ostentatious life that they are exhibiting shamelessly across social media regularly.
Where did all the wealth comes from?
In Nov 2024, a newspaper reported that PMX ranked 17th among 18 richest world leaders with a net worth of around RM10.7 million.
Based on asset declarations submitted by the Cabinet to MACC in 2020, 48 out of 56 surveyed ministers and deputy ministers were millionaires at that time, have at least 11 owning over RM10 million in assets.
While a specific total count of wealthy politicians is not public, another analysis in 2024 highlighted a significant number of wealthy Malay politicians, often surpassing the number of wealthy Malay businessmen.
This fact was also affirmed by a former minister who told an online news site in 2024 at a Bumiputra Congress that although Malaysia has a small number of wealthy Malay businessmen, in reality, there is a larger number of very wealthy Malay politicians saying it is a known fact that wealthy Malay politicians prefer to have non-Malay businessmen as their proxies.
It is important to note that asset declaration data is not always comprehensive and many public perceptions of politician wealth suggest it may exceed declared figures.
Elite politicians and their networks maintained significant, permanent influence on the economy, often leveraging direct negotiations and crony capitalism for economic opportunities.
In 2017, research outfit, Invoke that is owned by Rafiz Ramli got all the politicians from Pakatan Harapan to declare their assets and the results revealed that half of the 26 politicians from the Pakatan Harapan (PH) Opposition pact are millionaires on paper, while the rest were generally worth more than the average Malaysian.
This, apparently is in contrast with the general Malaysian population where only about 10% earn enough to pay income tax.
Thus, when Selangor Ruler Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah shared a photo of the quote by the 33rd American president, Harry S. Truman, which states, “no man can get rich through politics unless he is a crook” in a post on the Selangor Royal Office social media account, only the ordinary rakyat was laughing.
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