Never has that been more the Malaysian business reality than under the crony economy engineered by Mahathir Mohamad. The price of admission varies, but it's never cheap.
Some corporate players hedge their bets among several political patrons, despite the higher cost.
Others, including most of the leading Malay entrepreneurs, are more beholden to a single patron. Wan Azmi has enough sense to see the value of hedging his political bets for long-term corporate stability. But he didn't. Instead, he stayed by his main patron, two-time Finance Minister Tun Daim Zainuddin . The smart and ever grateful adjutant, who concedes no wrong in his former master's excesses and even publicly professes his admiration for his contributions to Malaysia.