Drawing on interviews with first-hand sources in and outside the administration, official minutes and still classified documents, Shattered Hopes focuses on PH1.0's rocky 22-months in power to tell the story of how a fledgling Government filled with so much promise and hope, was racked by internal power struggles and politicking even in its very first weeks in power, amid policy paralysis, racial politicking and the ultimate unwillingness of veteran Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to hand over power to his twice-anointed successor, Anwar Ibrahim.

In doing so, Shattered Hopes presents readers with a vivid blow by blow account of how broken promises, political patronage and trade-offs, economic dysfunction and racial polarization eventually became the defining characteristics of the promised New Malaysia.