Malaysia’s Daim Zainuddin, twice finance minister, dies at 86

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Daim Zainuddin, an influential two-times finance minister who led major economic reforms and helped steer the Southeast Asian nation through recessions and the Asian financial crisis, died on Wednesday (Nov 13), his family said.
The 86-year-old, who was credited with investor-friendly policies and privatisation of state-owned firms under former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, died at a hospital on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, the family said in a statement.
It did not give a cause of death.
“In the past few weeks, he was in the intensive care unit after he had a stroke,” said his lawyer, Gurdial Singh Nijar, adding that he did not know the cause of death.
As finance minister from 1984 to 1991 and then from 1999 to 2001, Daim was key to Dr Mahathir’s vision of transforming Malaysia into a modern industrial nation, helping to draw in foreign investment and spur economic growth that reached 9.06 per cent in 1989.
“I have lost a friend who fought with me for race, country and religion,” Dr Mahathir said in a statement, adding that he was “immeasurably saddened” by the death.
Daim wielded enormous power during Dr Mahathir’s two stints as the country’s leader.
Daim’s second stint as finance minister followed Dr Mahathir’s defiance of advice from the International Monetary Fund in response to the Asian financial crisis of 1997, imposing capital controls and pegging the ringgit currency to the dollar in 1998.
Even after retiring, Daim remained an influential figure. In 2018, when Dr Mahathir returned as prime minister, he appointed Daim to lead a state advisory council tasked with scrutinising government policies and management of state-linked firms.
But in his last years, the lawyer-turned-businessman came under the spotlight for his asset declarations, having had substantial interests in sectors from banking to property.
Malaysia’s anti-graft body began investigating Daim in 2023 over information in the Pandora Papers, a massive leak of financial records that revealed offshore assets held by politicians and public figures worldwide.
In it, Daim, his associates and family were reported to have held assets worth at least £25 million (US$32 million). He said not all the assets were his and he had broken no laws.
In December last year, CNA broke the news that Malaysia’s anti-graft agency had seized the multi-million-dollar Ilham Tower, a prime 60-storey commercial building in Kuala Lumpur owned by Daim’s family.
The move by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) was part of a probe into controversial transactions by corporate entities previously controlled by the one-time ruling United Malays National Organisation.
Earlier this year, Daim was charged with failing to disclose assets under an anti-corruption law, in a graft crackdown by the government of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
He pleaded not guilty in the case, one of the highest-profile such actions against prominent figures.
Anwar has denied critics’ accusations that he has used the anti-graft agency to target political rivals.
Anwar, who was replaced by Daim as finance minister in 1999 after being sacked by Mahathir for alleged corruption and sodomy, offered condolences to the family.
“The government recognises his service and contributions to the country, especially when he was finance minister,” Anwar said on Facebook.