Resentment Can Breed Across Borders, Mahathir

In Nepal, the patience of a generation has snapped. Young people, burdened by joblessness and disillusioned with politics, have poured into the streets in anger at the entrenched political dynasties that dominate every corner of their state. Their demand is not simply for policy change but for the dismantling of a system that recycles surnames while suffocating opportunity. To them, nepotism is no longer an abstract grievance — it is the visible reason for inequality, corruption, and the erosion of national hope.

Malaysia should read this as more than distant news. Here, too, dynastic politics defines our landscape. Mahathir Mohamad’s children are the most visible examples: Marina as a moral voice, Mukhriz as a party man and former chief minister, Mokhzani as a corporate titan. Each role appears distinct, yet all draw their authority from a shared family legacy. And Mahathir’s clan is hardly alone. Across our political spectrum, family names repeat like mantras: Razak, Hussein, Anwar, Lim. Cabinet seats, party presidencies, and even opposition leaderships are handed not merely by vote but by bloodline. 

This concentration of privilege is not lost on Malaysians. Social media has pulled back the curtain. What once circulated in closed circles of political patronage is now dissected daily online. The progeny of the elite do not need to boast; their very existence within a cocoon of access and entitlement tells a story of inequality. For Malaysians tightening their belts, the message is clear: they are not just privileged, they are living in a different country within the same nation.

Nepal’s protests are a warning. There, anger erupted not only because elites monopolised politics, but because their children and grandchildren lived untouched by the struggles of ordinary youth. Nepali protesters spoke of two worlds: one for the dynasties, another for everyone else. That fury transformed into a generational revolt against the entire political order. 

Malaysia risks the same trajectory. The sight of Mahathir’s grandchildren enjoying inherited platforms while ordinary Malaysians face inflation and stagnation is not harmless symbolism; it is the wood shavings in the tinder box. Resentment grows fastest when inequality is plastered on social media, where even private matters take a single share for all to see. If dynasties continue to project lives insulated from national struggle, the rakyat may decide, as Nepal’s youth have, that the only answer is to confront the system itself.

Malaysia’s elites may believe their legacies are untouchable. But a new generation is watching, and they see clearly: Their grandchildren live in another world. And that world cannot coexist forever with a public that feels left behind.