They have to say that because they know those are their weak points. Tell a lie often enough and hope some will believe its true.
Kinda like "islam is a religion of peace and tolerance!"
They've screwed over many of their close friends, who have to sell their successful businesses to the Mahathir clan, or licenses and permits and all those things conducive to running a business smoothly suddenly come hard to come by. It doesn't matter which Mahathir crony they've had to bribe for them already. Then they switch to thinly veiled threats.
I'm amazed he was never brought down in a coup. He had a lot of pi$$ed off people in his inner circle who had no love for him as a person, his politics, or his corrupt practices...
Some combination, islam and the asian mindset...soon I am off to Tasmania...that's as far from South East Asia as it's possible to get without freezing.