The Olympian tragedy unravelling Malaysia by the billions

kean
16 min readAug 24, 2016
Dusk in Kuala Lumpur, August 2016: a backdrop of soaring towers for the urbanised poor

In the heatwave before another bout of regional smog from forest fires, many Malaysian conversations this year have been especially subdued and resigned in tenor, only briefly lifted by a thrilling Olympic summer that was half a world away in Rio de Janeiro.

The seemingly endless saga of missing billions of public money, linked to a state development fund controlled…

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