Forget what he had said in multiple interviews that he “didn’t care” how his legacy would be remembered. The dictator was a master in reverse psychology, infamous for saying the opposite in his sarcastic trademark. He cares very much how people will remember his legacy, otherwise he would have retired peacefully in 2003, the same way his successor Abdullah Badawi did in 2009.

Heck, not only his entire 22 years of hard work in enriching his children will go to the dogs, he would turn in his grave when people keep insulting him as the son of Iskandar “Kutty”. If there’s one thing he can’t erase, it’s the fact that he isn’t pure Malay, but a corrupt “Mamak”. Out of embarrassment, the only thing he can say is that there were only spoonfuls of Indian blood in him.

Worse, Mahathir is terrified – even panicked – that he would end up like Marcos, Mubarak, Gaffadi, Saddam Hussein and a long list of 20 notorious corrupt dictators who had gone “kaput and dead” but demonized instead of respected. As a living fossil, Mahathir is now powerless, alone, desperate, frustrated and whatnot, even though he can take some comfort that his family is rich beyond his dream.

When Pharaoh Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in 2011 after 30 years of iron-fist rule, the forner Egyptian president’s fortune was estimated at between US$40 billion and US$70 billion. However, the Washington Post said that based on documents published by top Egyptian lawyers, Mubarak’s clan may have squirreled away US$700 billion in “cash, gold and other state-owned valuables”.

Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed the same year his buddy Mubarak was toppled, had a net worth of at least US$70 billion. But it was a very conservative figure. Known as the “King of Kings”, Gaddafi was worth over US$200 billion with assets in bank accounts, real estate and corporate investments around the world, thanks to his control over the largest oil reserves in Africa for 41 years.

After the Gaddafi regime lost power, the Obama administration quickly froze about US$37 billion of Libyan assets in the U.S., while the governments in France, Italy, England and Germany had seized another US$30 billion. Investigators estimated that Gaddafi had stashed another US$30 billion elsewhere around the globe. And the dictator was known to keep most of his ill-gotten fortune in Libya.