.jpg)
By Mihar Dias November 2025
November marks a year since Tun Daim Zainuddin left this world — a man who passed on wealthy, yes, but also wise. A man who left behind buildings, banks, policies, and perhaps most enduringly, a legacy that still unsettles those now running the country. https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2024/11/13/who-was-daim-zainuddin-finance-minister-banker-businessman-adviser-1938-2024/156720
For all its slogans of compassion and morality, the Madani government appears unable to let Daim rest. His name keeps resurfacing — in investigations, statements, and thinly veiled moral lectures about accountability. It’s as if the administration must defeat his ghost to prove its own virtue. https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/734458
But Daim was no ordinary tycoon. Twice Malaysia’s finance minister, he was the quiet architect of the country’s fiscal recovery in the 1980s. While others courted crowds, Daim courted investors. When the ringgit trembled, he steadied it. When the economy bled, he stemmed the flow. https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2024/11/13/who-was-daim-zainuddin-finance-minister-banker-businessman-adviser-1938-2024/156720
He didn’t talk about “Madani” or “values-based governance.” He simply did what had to be done — and made sure the nation’s books balanced at the end of it. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/17caWJiWZm/
His critics will say he was part of the system that created Malaysia’s wealth gap — that he profited from the very economy he helped shape. I doubt that!
But unlike many of today’s moralists, Daim left behind something tangible: industries, institutions, and an economy that could stand on its own two feet. https://www.utusan.com.my/nasional/2024/11/biodata-allahyarham-tun-daim-zainuddin-2/
He never disguised his pragmatism as piety.
What’s more troubling now is the selective amnesia of the current administration. The same leaders who once sought Daim’s counsel now act as though he was a symbol of everything wrong with Malaysia. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/17caWJiWZm/
They conveniently forget that when times were tough — from currency crises to investment slumps — it was Daim whom Mahathir called upon to restore order. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/17caWJiWZm/
Now, posthumously, they’ve turned him into a ghost story — the wealthy spectre haunting their conscience.
Every few weeks, some official hint or investigation seems to suggest that justice, at last, is coming for Daim’s empire. But Malaysians can tell the difference between justice and political drama. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/17caWJiWZm/
Let’s be honest — it’s far easier to chase ghosts than to fix the living economy.
It’s far more convenient to moralise about the past than to manage the present inflation, declining investor confidence, and a shrinking ringgit.
The Madani narrative thrives on contrast, and Daim — a man of results rather than rhetoric — offers a convenient villain. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/17caWJiWZm/
But time will judge differently. Daim belonged to an era when leadership meant taking hard, often unpopular decisions for the sake of the nation’s long-term stability.
He believed in discipline over drama, substance over slogans. He may not have been universally loved, but he was deeply respected — even by those who envied his success.
One year on, Malaysia should remember him not as a symbol of excess, but as a symbol of endurance. He was a man who proved that wealth and wisdom could coexist, that economic success could be engineered through focus and foresight, not just speeches about virtue.
Perhaps the Madani government should take note: ghosts only haunt those who feel guilty.
So, if Tun Daim’s memory still stirs unease in Putrajaya, maybe it’s not his ghost that lingers — but his standards.
Mihar Dias (mihardias@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.