KUALA LUMPUR – The 60-storey Ilham Tower seized by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission may be a commercial building, but its ownership and role as a meeting place for top figures from previous governments lend it political significance.
Owned by former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin, it is among the capital’s tallest buildings at 274m, housing office space as well as serviced apartments.
Designed by British architectural firm Foster and Partners, it cost US$580 million to build and was completed in 2015.
It was also where close confidants of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad met in the early days of his second administration, when Pakatan Harapan (PH) won federal power in 2018.
Daim, now 85, is on record on an Astro Awani programme then, called Perspektif Tun Daim, admitting that decisions during the early stages of the PH government were made at Ilham Tower rather than in Putrajaya.
Dr Mahathir, who had yet to appoint a cabinet, had chosen to confer with Daim, his trusted right-hand man for years during his first tenure as prime minister, and many of those meetings were held at Ilham Tower, where Daim lives and has his office.
Daim was considered Dr Mahathir’s top adviser, and was made chairman of the Council of Eminent Persons by the latter. The council – which some media dubbed a “politburo” or “Jedi Council” – was to serve as advisers to the new PH government.
Council members, who included Hong Kong-based Malaysian tycoon Tan Sri Robert Kuok, held meetings at Ilham Tower.
Many corporate figures, administrators, ministers, senior civil servants and politicians were regularly summoned here by Daim.
The tower is also home to the Ilham Gallery, which was set up in 2015 with art pieces and paintings worth millions of ringgit. Daim is known as an art aficionado.
More recently, and controversially, Ilham Tower was named by Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Lokman Noor Adam in April this year as the meeting place where Daim met Perikatan Nasional figures Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin, Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan and Datuk Seri Azmin Ali, purportedly to discuss ways to topple the present unity government. – December 22, 2023