Brawl Over One Man's Legacy

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Cl Barry Wain ZOO9 All rights re)er"Ved. No reproduction, copy or transminlon of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with Wf;lIen rmision or in iKco rdance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patt'nts Act 1988, or undef Ihe terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Cop)'l'ighL UClffislng Agerocy, Saffron HOUSE!, 6-10 I(:jrby Strt'et, London EC1N 8TS.

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1111I 'wold

.1,11.111111 1\.1,,11,1111,111 .III h~' du' fierces t crit ic and an ally of Ch inese-Malaysian bus!

1H~""III('n; ;t lifeless campaigner against Western ('Conomic domination who ,Is.siduously courled Amcrican and Europe" '1 capita lists; a blunt. combatiV(' individua l who extolied till' virt u('S o f consellSlIal Asian values. Much, of course, ca n he cxplain('d by pOlitical ex!X'diency: Like aU suece~S (ll l pol i t icians, Dr. Mah,lI h ir compromised where necessary \0 mt.'Ct the competi ng and shi fting dCln

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\\']1.1/,111' \1 11111 II v I lIllI"l ,h 'II'I" " I' ". II IIII\\" 1II r>.1,IIMthir':. "'t hink big" philo, \"1'11\ \\ 111t II PIUlltl' l," ,t Pllltih ' loI,T II" wIling all sorts of world records, 111-. ,11,,\,

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f .. nter 1981

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III t-1.lllalhlr 111'K"r"d print-ouls of tIll" lhapt!.'r of his unfinished memoirs ill Part I e.lrly 2UOI'I ,lIal explained why hI.' had 1>...... /1 I,IlIabll.' to complete the job in fIlort

than flV

1 Politicized by War and Peace

Alor Stilr, the capital of Kedah state. might have Ilt'Cil a slcepy backwater in the e

though memorieS of the jn'quitie~ of the system permanently colollr'd hb ou l1ook.

Where th e esl,lbli shmcnl was concerned, Mahath lr was a mavt'rick, an "outsider" In the words of Zainuddln Maidin, a iou rnalist-turned- Ix>liti clan and supporter In Kedah.2 Mahath lr challenged tilt' rul~ and convl'ntions, whem'vcl tl1(' y appe,ned to make no sense, or got In his way. He {eve lied In being a contra rian, doing what was popularly forbidden . To many others, Mahathir's youthful experience man ifested itself as an inferiority complel( that made him fight harder, shout louder, build bigger and remain sU IX"r-scnsitive to any Slight or uiticislII . "I prefer to say he ha~ a big ch ip on his shoulder," cOllunentecl Ahdullah Ahmad, a long-ti me poli ti(:al ally. t Khalid Atxlullah, ,Ill ea rly business pa rtll'r and friend for more than half a cen tury, observed wit h a gentle laugh, "I thill k he has a little sUlx'riority com plex." Khalid quoted an Arab proverb to explain Mahathir's mentality: "If you Sl'l' me with o ne eye, I have 110 eyes to see you, If you see me with both eyes, I have all my eyes to see YOll ."4

Eyes wide open, Maha thlr focused on l>olitics early. lie got hooked while he was stili In school and never deviated fro m his desire to become a IXlllt-Icilln_ Every step he took, incl ud ing q ua lifying as a doctor, was meant to enhance his credentials for a j)olitlcall'arl'l'r, He t'nteted the national\>ollt-Ical arena 1x.'Cause he was unhappy with the state of the country and wan ted to Change it. Most of all, he set ou t to Improve the status of fellow Malays, the country's predominant ethnic group who, despite the;r numerical superiorit y, lagged economica lly behind the ChineS(.', He would not become prime minis-ter umit the age of 56, aftt'r overcomi ng s{'veral ~'rious 1x>litiGII obst

from Ind ia , Pakistan d to influences ill Ihose fo rmative year,>. No factor was more import ant than hi s pipe-smoking father. Master Mohamad Islmndar, as he was called a t school, IllI poS

8 Ma"wsiall Maverick

Much to Master Moilamad Iskanda r's disgust, however, nOlle of his four daughters could attend secondary school in Kedah, as all places in the girls' school were taken by children of the elite. He was silock(.'d when the school rejected h is fi rst daugh ter ;Iher she had fi n ished primary school. S'lid Mahathi r, " Ik was wry annoyc'd because he was a government officer, and he was invited to Kedah to start the school. And yet this girls' school, whi ch was started la te r on, refused to accept my sister." NOlle of the other th ree girls had any better luck when their ti me callJe.2-.i

Jllst how galling Illat was to Moharnad Iskandar, who was obsessed with ed ucation as a mean s or getting ahead. can be gaug('d by o ne measu re: He had fal siHed the birth da tes of h is sons to ensure they could start the first yea r of prima ry school wit hout any of the usual arguments about having to wait un til the following int ake. Mahathi r's bi rth certifICate showed he was born on 20 December 1925, and it remained his official birt hday, bei ng chase r! hy the guvernment, for exa mple, a~ Ihe day on which to op('n his o ld house as a museum. BUI , a .~ Mahathir discovered from notes written by his father in the back of a di ction ary, he WilS actually born fi ve mon th s e;IfJi (' r. I lis fath er h'ld given ,Ill the boys arbitrary Dt'Cember birth dates , while r('cordi ng the correct datt's in the dictio nary.2~

If the autJlorities hoped to make amends la l(>r by naming a prima ry schooL established within the Sultan Alxlui l lamid ColI

10 M ,tlilysicm .\1m-wick

fated to liVl' unde r t ile do minatio n of o the r peo ple ... they IISl'd to be under the Thais ... and Ihey had to pay tribute to China. They had to submit to t he British, the I'o rtuguesc ... for 450 years .. .! rcad ,Iboll t t he thirteen colon ies and how they struggled for independence and how the United Sta tes eml'rgcd .. .th is innuencc

12 MalaYS/lilt Mmw;r/c

WOl1ldn frie nd, only to be deli vered to the servants' qua riNs of the house. 17 Mahalhlr had a long memory, particularly wll('n it carne to insults and enemies. Invited to Singapor(> in 1978 by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Y(>w soon after becoming Ma laY5ia 's deputy prime minister, Dr. Mahathir did not try to hide his deep anti-Singapore feeli ngs. l ie told his host t hat Singapore Chinese looked down upon the Malays.jB

At a personal level, however, Mahathir had no trouble: at all making friends with people of all ethnic backgrounds. In the Class of 47 - Ihe students thoughtfully named it aher their fres hman year to include those who gradu-ated late or d roPlx' of US. "l'"

They held regular reun ions, in Si ngapore o r MalaYSia, culmi nati ng In a 60th ann iw rsary ga ther in g in 2007 . with Dr. Mah athlr always making a supreme effort 10 all (! nO . While he wa '> prime mini ster, he wo ul d t(' li hl:i bodyguards and min ders 10 lea ve, exposing himself to the Tagging of aging medicos reliving their youth, and dish ing il out to them In retu rn. At these intensely private, Informal ga therings, Dr. Mahathit and Dr. Si ti lIasrnah, both considered to have good voices - he rs somewhat better t han h is - were usually ca lled upon for a duet. In 1997, Or. Ma hath ir sa ng My WtlY solo, with lyrics written for the occasion by class members a nd featuring Arneriran investor George Soros, blamed by the Ma laysian leader for aggra-vating the A~lan t'C(momic crisis that )'ear.4O

Living away from home for the first ti me, Mahathir proved a true son of his father as he managed his time eXp.:'rtly. Sor ializing li ttle beyond occasional visits to thl' cinema, he shunned campus poli ticS, d ismissing such activity as "playing gall\es~, and telling fellow students he prden ed to pmticipatc In tht' 1'('31 polit ical d ra ma unfoldin g on th(' Ma lay P('ninsula.~1 Mahathir bccaml' president of the college Islamic Socicty, and edited and produced an issllc of his medica l school lou mal, the O w/drou. lie continued writing artick-s regularly enough for Ihe Stmits "'/11"5 lind Sunriay Times to hel p buy a motor-cycle; Siti IId",mah n.xll pil lion. lIis varied output, written in a ~di r('d, didactic style. W>lS a "rt'm arkable accompli shm(nt fo r a ful l- ti me studen t in a demanding d iscipline .... ' ! And if was apPl'('Ciated, >It least by the Straits Timls. An editor called him to the paper's offic(.>$ in Singapore and as ked if hl' was intt're:.t('(] In a job as a journalist. No, he was not.

Singapore gave bi rth to an urban myth, Ihat Mahathi r thought of himself as an Indian when he ellle red un iversity. The story was relold in severa l gossipy versio ns, losing no nc of it~ appeal across the decad('s. Academics, diploma ts and even a forme r cabin('t COlleague delighted in passing along the dNails, all complet ely un tru(>. Mahat hir 's father considered hi msel f a Malay and he l'nsured that illl his l'hildren were noth ing else but Malay.

Politicized by WilT (I//(/l'l'II((' 1:1

In hi $ w ritings, which began be fore he went 10 Singapo re, Mahathir identified totally with the Ma lays an d show('ti he was intimately familiar with thei r customs, social life and problems, whether it was educat ion, fis h, ing or pudi plimti ng. His more overtl y poli tical Wllt rihuti ons were polem ical, and uncompromising in dcf(>ncc of Malay rights. Foreshadowing the nationalist stance Ihat wou ld make him a hero to man y Malays when he enter('(1 Pa rliament, he crit icized the colonial admi nistration, l'alled for the re-i ntroduction o f Ma lay as an oflici al language, alongside English , and made tht' case for "reta rdi ng progrt'ss" somet imes in order to help tht' Miliays advance. Well ahead of his time, hl' also advOt'a ted women 's rights, a rgUing espt"'Cia lly for women to be give n opportunities In education and employment .H At the same lime, Maha thi r began to reveal critica l opin-ions about the Ma lay'S themselves that would be, their "low aver;lge in telligence quolien l ... ~~

After graduati ng, Dr. Ma hllthh spent only four years in government s('rvin~ in Pena ng and Kedah befort resigni ng to open a private practice, while his wift' was to work as a docto r fo r the govern mellt for 2S years. Alt hough the immediate reason fOr his quitti ng was the failure of a superior to support h is ilppl iGlI iol\ for a posting to study In a teHch ing hospital in Pena ng to be a surgeon, h(' also wanted to remai n ncar his aging parents. Borrowing money from a brot her-in-law. he opcnl'

and chandeliers. " I likl' the feeling of bui lding things, of working with wood o r metal a nd crt'atillg something," he once told a II ri tish journalist. No on c who witnessed h im at his h()hbi~ do ubted he wo uld have m ade a fml'surgeon.

Dr. Mahalhir and Dr. Siti lI asmah we re a lso involwd in welfat(' and public hea lth activit ies. W hil e he, a s President o f the Kedah Tub('rcu losis Associatio n, visit ed Indian workers on rubb('r p lan ta tIons to tr('at and give advic(' to 'I' ll su fferers, '~ she threw h('1 weigh t beh ind the K('dah Fam ily Pla nn ing Associa tio n. At Dr. Mah ath ir's request, Sha ilri Oaud, a federal bun.aucra! and friend, helped him l'Stablish a private l'tlucat ion association to fi n of mo ney. Dr. Mahat hlr j'lughed when the kids e nter('(.l [}('wspl ol'ks of Mal aysia, t he children lea rned about tht wider wo rld fro m the ir father. Mari na was not a ll owl'd to have pen pill~ from South Mrica o r israel because of apa rtheid and the I'a l e~tinjan cauSl.' . Twice, an Ame rican teenager stayed wit h the fa m ily fOI a cou ple of lIIonth s under a st udent exchange progra mme, which Dr. Ma hath lr "was reall y in to", a s Mukhriz Mahathir put it. The pa~nts lost some of their ent husiasm , though, after Marina, at 16, returned from three months in California "quite influ c nCl'(1 b)' the AmerIcan way o f life~ , in Il{'r mot her's words. Marina had become u very forward , argumentaliv{' '' , Dr. Sit i Ilaslilah sa id. '>II Marina l

profitilble. Dr. Mahathir recall ed tha t befo re tht war the re had been oilly two Malay shops in the wh ole of Alor Sta r.!" He helped found the Malay Cham ber of Commerce and later serv('(1 as a director. "Mah athlr was an inspiration," said locally-born Jaafar Ism ail , who in 2007 was th e exc C\lti ve director, infrastructurt, of an Australian-listed internationa l invest men t fund and asset management group. " I saw business as a th ing to dO."62

One of Dr. Maha thir's noteworthy investments began with his pilch to a sa les representative, who distributed pharmaceuticals to doctors, to quit his Penang-based agency and ioin Dr. Mahathir in fo rm ing a riva l compan y. Dr. Maha th ir, w ith 30 pe r cent of tht' eqUity, was one of eight shareholders when MICO Farmasi Sdn. Bhd. was incoqX)f;lthi in 1964. He organi zed the flllancial side wh ile the former sa lesm all put together the management team and ran the company. [t was ca lled Mleo, at Dr. Mahathir's sug-ges ti o n, for Malaysian India n Chinese Organ ization, beca u~e the own ers were drawn from all three ethnic groups. In addition to distributlng drugs wholesale throughollt Kedah and Perl is sta tes, t he company operated a reta il pharmacy in Ala r Star. In 2008, 44 years later, MleO waS humming a long with a staff of ten, its origi nal family shareholder structure sti ll in place, including Dr. Maha thir' s stake. The managing director was l'la ja Nasrudeen Abdul Ka reem, 46, the physiCian son o f the salesma n-founder, who had taken over upon his fathe r'sdea tb in 1992. fL1

While Dr. Mahathir told friends he was t rying to make money to launch his political bid, he did not hesita te to flaun t his wealt h. He bought one of the biggest and most im posing alltomobiles ever produced by Detroit, a blue Pontiac. His later expla nation tha t he acqu i.red the ca r from a friend, who was the agent, because he was haVi ng trouble se lling the Pontiac and offered it cheap - "only 12,000" dollars - and o n ins ta llments, was only part of the story. At a ti me when most people in Alor Star wal ked or pedaled bicycles along d usty streets li ned with low wooden bui ld ings and everyone knew who owned which ca r, Dr. Mahath ir was makIng a stat e-ment: It was "a symbol of h is aspiration to prove the capabilities o f the Malays", as one admire r saw it .64 Most immediately, it was a d eclaration that the boy fro m the wrong side of the tracks had arrived. "Maybe there's somc clement a lso of that," Dr. Mahathir conceded.

In case anyone missed the poi nt, Dr. Mahathir employed a Ch inese d river. His later contention , thai "'1 never realized that I was doing something odd" and that he hired the mao because he asked for the job and spoke Malay, should be taken with more than a grain of salt. His friends in Kuala Lumpur certain ly let him know they found the arrangement "ullusua l ~ . Remember that Dr. Mahilthi r had ci ted Malays working as drivers as evidence of thei r marginalization in Singapore. As he once told a frknd , "A driver sits in t he front of the ca r, but who is the t/lan? The master sits in the back. Who opens the door? The driver ." M

NatiOnally, the UMNO-Icd Malays, energized by the likes of Dr. Mahathlr, secured arrangement s for independence largely on the ir term s, fo llowing British re- recogn ition in 1948 that Malaya was essent ially the land of the Malays. Independent Malaya, which materialized on 3 1 August 1957, was a

"Ma lay~ nation -state where the "specia l position" of the Ma lays was rctog-nized in til(' Const it ution . The sovereignty of the sulta ns in the nine Malay states was reaffirmed, and Ihey were given powers to reserve government jobs, licences, servic

18 Mfl iCly.\i(!/1 Mm't'ficle

On(' of 45 children of the Sultan of Kedah, Tun ku Abdul ltah man was an Anglophile, who readily admit ted he had misspent his yout h In England o n slow ho rses and fast women . Hl' earned h is arts degrec wit h the lowest possible marks fo r a pass and was 45 by the tim(' b(' passed his fina l bar cxam, ha ving work('(\ In the Ke(\ah civil servi ce. A con fmll ('d bon vivan t who con t ln ucd to d rink and ga mbk modera tely, he was su perstitious, ( h ,mnl ng and pu t a high store on bei ng happy, though h(' had natura l po ll tlcal instin cts and devl'lopcd a s teely resolve. "The Tunku ", o r simpl y "Tu nkll ", as he wa s affecl io mllely known even though n umero us others of royal birth bo re the same tit le, became UMNO lea de r fo rtU itously. When th e post opened up unexpectedly in 195 1, Razak Il ossein was asked to stand, but nominated his friend, the Tu nku, bccause he considered himself too young.

Not only d id Dr. Mahath ir not smo ke or gamble, he st rongly disa pproved of the lifestyles o f sen ior civil servan ts and po lit icians who spent their I('bun.' hours in bars and dance halls - and on the gol f cou rse, a game played by the firs t three prime ministers. He was incenSE.'d by feudal aspects o f royalt y and scathing about the ho ld tha t so me tradit ions had on th(' Ma lays, exemplified by the proverb, " L.et the child d ie, but le i not the custom pe rish . ~ He po in ted out wit h dour logk that " if Ihe ch ild d ies, then the custom d ies alo ng wit h HIt.1>!!

As (ar as Tunku Abdul Rahman was concerned, Or. Mahathir lacked respect for Malay custom known as fldot and did not know h is place. He was certain he r{'Cognized in Or. Mahat hir an in f('rio rity complex occa sioned by h is part-Indian ancestry, bet:ause he hl ms(' lf had suffe red from the same "diseasc" when loo ked down upon over h is skin colour while studying in Cambridge. "To ove rcome th is feeli ng of Inferiori ty, ~ said th e TlI ll ku, " I bough t the mos t ex pensive, at tha t ti ll1e, super sports car and I sped through town i n It 1ll.1 king quite a nuisan("(,' o( myself. Just to be noti (ed . " t,~

While Dr. Maha thir had his gian t Pon tiac, he wan t('(illlon,' than personal a ttention. He had a cause to sell as well . Although he and Tunku Abd ul

I~ahma n shared the opinion lhat the Malays were not very clever or dcmand-ing, they pa rted sharply over what should be done about It. Th(' Tunku fi&'llrt'(l they wou ld be {"onlenl to control the machil1etion - negotiated wit h London for an end to the British IH(,S-enee. Dr. Mahat h ir ob jected to an agreement a llow ing Brit ish and other Co rnrn omvealt h fo rces to remain in Malaya after Indepe nde nce In retu rn for a commi tment to th(' (oun try's ex terna l dc(eIKc. Hc so mt'\ im{'s fo und hlrn sl'l f out of s te p wi III UMN O's ]('adersh ip and sharIng vIews with oppo-~ lt ion pa rties. He al so opposed Ihe adoption o f the fol k tunc TI'f(lIIg Hula ll , r("packaged as Nt'${1w ku , as the national anthem, o n the grounds of its ~en ti nl{'n t a li t y . H e lost th,tt a rgument, 10 0 , but h ,1(1 Ihe last .sely when he bc\:ame prime min ister much la ter.

Chairman of UMNO in Keda h and kno wn na tio nally, Dr. Maha th ir was eXpl'i:led to be a cand icla te in the 1959 genew l eit'Ctio n, the fi r~t in inde-pcmk n t Malaya. Hu l he wit hdrew over a mino r con fl kt, revea ling another side of his personality ,lOd po lit kal style that would crop up Ix' riod ically in his career: a deep se nSi ti vit y to the act ions of o th l;' rs all d, on occasions, an all-Of-not hing response to po lit ical problems.?) Dr. Mah ath lr had proposed that UMNO members choscn as candidates should have ccrtaln {'ducational q ualificat ions, a lienating some members, who appea led to Tun ku Abd ul Rah man . Or. Mahat h ir sa id that as "th e party p resident backed them", he "wit hd rew f rom acti ve IJa rtici pati on in the party".ll

Determined that when he madc his en try II would b(' all h is terms, Dr. MahathiI kept up the crit icism. "There Is no way that I wi ll go 10 Kua la l.u mpur just to tag along with the Tu n ku at the gol f course In order to make a comeback, ~ he sald .1\ lie did not have to. Nominated as thc Alliance ca ndidate for Kcdah's Kola Star Soulh parliamentary constituency in 1964, he romped home aga inst a I'ersa tuan 1 ~ l am 5.1 Tanah Melayu (PAS) opponl'nl.

Notes

Kua Kia Soong, cd., K. I hH & /11,' Tllllle" 'rClfJI:~ (1'el .. lln l; Jaya: Str .. tcgic tn fo R.~~arch Dl,,'clopIllCIlt , 2002), l'p. 131- 132.

2 Zainuddin Mald ln. '111(' Oilier Si(i(' of MdlU/tlti, (Kuata Lumpur: Utusan I' ublicatiolls &: Distributors Sdn. liM ., 1994), p. 14.

3 tntcrv!{'w wit h Ab .... u llah Ahmad, 30 May 2007, 4 Intervit'w with Khalil! Alxlullah, 28 f d1fuary 2007. 5 John FUllston, ~ jl() lit il"lI l Cau.'crs of Maha thir Mohamad and An war Ibrahim:

[la ra lll.'! , Inll'rsl't'l ing and COlllllCling Lives", IKMAS Working Papers (Insti tute of Ma laysian and In tl' rIl ll t lonal St ud lt'S, Uni Vl' rsl t l Kl'ba ng~a .m Malaysi a), no. 15 Ou ly 1998) : I- Iv, 1- 32.

6 Con 1llct ing Vil'W$ I'xlst on Ik M"hathlr 's orisi ns. Two prom inen t K holars 113 V(' wriHen t hat Dr. Milhat h lr'5 fat her w as an immigrllIll from Ind ia . See Joh n

Flln~toll , "The Legacy (i f I)t. Mahat hir", AIIS/w /IIIII nmlllc/II I R('I' irw, 30 July 2004; and Michal'll .t'i fer, /Jicfiollfuy of 111(' MOf/rflt Po/ilks or s.mtll('(lst Asia (London and

N~'w York Routledge, 1996 ('

1'111: A"lmd/rcllml W('.~ml'l tyof M:a pore: 1'11111:5 ~kdla I'll' . Ud .. 2000), p. 276. 38 Ibid., p. 276. 39 Intervll'w with Or. Won): I I1'c Ong, 21 M;HCh 2007. 40 Interview with Dr. Wong lll'l' Ong, 2 1 M;HCh 2007; pho ne in terview with

Dr. Jaml'S Mumga~u, 2J June- 2ooS. 4 1 intervl("w with Wang GUlIgW\l, 6 Oclolx'r 2006.

42 jolm Fu n~ton, "l'ol1ll\'al Url'i. rs of Mahal hir Moharnad and Anwar Ibrahim: l'araHel. ImefSCCllng and Conl1lcllng Ll vl'S ~.

4i Ihld. 44 Ik Mahathlr Mohamad, ~Ma lay I'logrc)s and the UniVl'rsity, In Till' Emir YI'

2 An Early Int roduction to Brutal Politics

Grilbbing the political spotlight after hb election, Or. Mahath ir t'stilbli sh t'd a re putat iOn as a n a{"tive and articulate parliament aria n in dcfc lH:c of the Malays. II

socia ll y, 'I unku Abdullah 0l)1l8~d by ('storting h im to t he S~ln ngor Club, the J ... 1Kl' Club and elsew here, while j>

26 Ma/ays ian Mi/wric/;

In UMNO, young Malay nationalists associ

over, anu Tunku Alxlul Ra hman abo formally banned. with printing, selling or dis-tributing It punlsh .. ble Ily thrre ycar~ Imprisonment and a rille of RM2,OOO. Witll this son of protectiOn, no outsiders could force till' Tunku to quit, Ihough iu~t itS surt'ly he wou ld Ita longer iJave the final sayon m thai Tunku Ahdul Rah man wanled to detain him, but they persuaded the Tunku it would o n ly make a martyr of Dr. Ma hathir.21 Too late: I Ie was already a hero In Malay eyes. r he rapid seq uence of shattering events - a traumallc election c.1mpaign, his defe,tt, th(' "May 13" violence, the I'unku le ller, double expulsion - gave him an al lllost cult-like following In his community. As poli tical '>Cientist Khoo noo 1 elk said, "It trilllsformed him from being a failed elecloral Gtlldidate int o a living symbol of Malay na tionalism."l4

III no siage during hi s almost three years in thc polit iCal wi ldcrttc~s did Dr. Ma hathlr lose interest In shaping the debate on MalaYSia 'S future . III addition 10 running his clinic and inve .... ting, he stepp{'(\ up his writing. In early 1970, he publishl..'d hi~ best known hook, 71'1' Malay DiI(,III/1/(/,.!5 \vhich was promptly banned in MalJysla, remai ning proscribed until Ill' be maverick image without the conten ts of Ih(' book remai n ing st.'uN, sinC(' it WitS ilvailable in Singapo re and he ;l c{"cpIed ~pca ldn g invita tions and discus~cd Ihe sub s t;tll("C of it . Two otht'r puhlicatiortS that ilppeil red a few Yl'a rs la ter wert' \ ubsta nt!aily written during this pe riod. I'mu/HfIllI)l'IIiasa Kt'ril, publiSht'd in 1974, appeared in English in 19M5 as GI/;/lt' (or SIl/(/lIlJltsillt~~SIll(,II . It adviScopie of Malaya, and should be accepted as the "tlt'lmitive rac{'''. II rejl'cled lion-Ma la y claims to political, linguistic and lullUral parity wit h the Malays. but not o n the grounds Ihat the Malays \\'t're ~uperior in any way. Just as count ries sud ) as the United States and \u\tralia required a certa in minimal assimila tioll of migrants to their own n.ttional culture, the Malays had a right to expect the non.Malays to do the \,Hnl.'. The aim was "not d l.'Slgned 10 IX'Tj>ctuate the privileges of the o ri -/olillotl ddlnitiv(' race to thl' exclusion of thl' II{,W immigra n t races ... sell i(-rs willing to conform to !ttl' characteristics of the dl;'fmitive cit izen will in fact IIl'uJlll(, definitive citil.('Tl!'> and will excTcist lill;' s,11lle rights and pri vileges". III praCti cc, they would l1 ,-,ed to ~ peak Malay .md b(' ed ucated In Mal.lY, Iitough thcy would 11m be required to adopt lsliHlI.

I he book defi ll ctllb titi(o : "The Malay dik'lllma is whether they shou ld 'lOp trying to help Ih('IIl~l'lvC5 in order that Ihl'y .should IX' proud to be the t)f.)()rcitil.e ns of a prosp

:'\() ,\-JU/ Superma n, descending from the skies to be met by alJ members of IIM'lO's Supreme Council, arms outstretched in welcome, Irrltaled some of them who did no t want him back. II Among those who agreed to his Te-admission only reiuct,lIltly was a fellow physiCian, Ismail Abdul Rahman, the highly prlnclptl'd deputy prirn(' minister and home aHalrs minister, who kit Dr. Mahathir had gone too far in his criticism of IheTunku. ,12

Aftef such a tumultuous, decade-long prelude - and partly be

32 M"lfI}'~ilm Mlm.'rict.

(iKtionClI str~' nglh would come in 1975. and tlit' (JutCOIllI' would sh:lj:w.' MH ICly~iCl n polllh;s for a g('neTter for natiotl

l{a7.ak was equa lly adaman t who was 10 be slopped: Syt'{l Jaafar " lImr. dubhed the Lion of UM NO, and Ilarun Idris, UMNO Youlh leader .md \'hl('f

mlni~tl'r 01 5d angor ~tal(', \; who W ('rt" hard-core TunJ...u supporter~; Muham-mad (.ha7.a1i Shane, the home affairs minister, regarded by the Ri17 .. i1k cam p as a political opportunist: and Ila rn7.ah Abu Samah, trade and ind UStry minister and ,lIlother brother-in-l aw of Ra7.ak. Harun, SYL'tI Jailfar Albar and Gha:wti were poll llc.1l1y unacceptable, while Razak would f,K't' i1u:usalions of nepotism If Ilamz,rh w,,'re e lected. Rawk told Abdulla h to make sure the four d id not win "I n that or(\t'r". He sa id Ih~trikcs aga inst him. SUIl ullder 40, he WCl\ o n thl' young sld(', lackt.'tl cabinet experience and was nOI marril'{l, whld l d id not sit well wilh some Malays. Ik Mahathir, the most lu nior o j the vice prL':>idents, got the nod .

Not close to lI ussel n, Dr. Mah athlr wa\ as surprised as anybOdy. He spec-ulated Ihat Hu ssein ('ould have' r('l ll'd o n sOllie advice an ill l~ a 7.A1 k gave

him. Dr. Mahilthir said lh at whtn he W('nt to ~l'e Hussein, as Kazak was being trl'

In Novcm lx:r 1976. i\lxlul1a h Ahmad. 36. and Abdullah Maj id. 50. deputy minister for labour and manpower. who had workt-d as R.1.zak's pr('S..~ set:retary. were arrested. along with four others. Intimidated by Sp\.'Cial Branch oOk('rs, the " two Dollahs", as they were known, duly aplX'ared on TV and ronfl'SS('{\ to commun ist act ivity while they held o fliee. As the witch hun t accelerated and widel1 t'd, Depu ty Prime Minister Mahathir and Musa I-litam. miniSter fo r primary ind ustries - the ultimate targets - Ix>gan to (cd the heat. The arrest of the two del)lIty ministers "in itself was a ll acking tiS, indirtly," Mus.1. \:lld later.'"

GhazaH was abk to jail so mallY people wit h no rcal ('vid('lIce because 11(' had an unwitting accomplice in Prime Minister Husseill Onn. Upright. honest ami 1l1sui tl'{l to the rough and tumble of Ma lay polit iCS, Hussein did not effectively mll trol t he UMNO he ullexpt'cted ly inhNited , Gha1.ali

wa .~ one of two cabi lll..'t III('mbt' rs Ilussein r('l ied Ilcavily 011 for advice, tlH.' o t] Il'r bel rl~ Flll(lnct' Mill iSh,'r Terlgku ROrlS. He spent most of the next ftvl' years loct.ed away, two of whi ch were In solitary confincment.sl

Dr. Mahal h ir an d Musa, who sat next to each other at wee kly Cabi net nl('~' t l n~s chai red by th e prime minist('r , were aware of Ghazali's manoeu-vrings, Said Musa: "Wil en Hussein Onn SlIyS, 'Thi s is from neutral sources'. we'd nudge each ot her and say, 'Special Branch. Special Branch', That's a ll. We kllew what was going Oil , yes," S2 Musa said that "I f Ghil 7. had his way. all of Ull would havc Ix.'cn in" detentlon_ It was to Hussein's credit, MUSil said , that he had resisted GhazaU') recommendations that Dr. Mahathir and Musa join the others Ix.'h ind bars.

All /:, trly Il/Im(/lIclilJ/l /11 11m/III /'u/ilics 37

It ..... as not for want of trying on Ghil1..alis part, though . SYl-d !-Iusin Ali, a political prisoner for 19 months at a cam p at Taipillg in Petak state, was sud-denly transferred wit hout explanation to Kuala Lumpur in mid-1 976 at thl' height of the anti-communiSI hysteria. I\ n assoclale professor of anthrolXllogy ,Ind sociology at the Universi ty of Malay", Ill' had been detained ~ince latc 1974 for sUPI>or\i ng protests by f;mllers at Baling in Kl'xplaln wh y Siddiq had bL'Cn picked up only in 1981 whell he had been

su~pecled of spying Since 1979. I.ong "fler, Or. Mahal h ir agreed that t he dramat iC arrest cou ld hilVC \)t'l' lI tl m('d to stop him ta ki ng over as pri me minister. "Th e act ion agai nst Sidellq I11lght have [had l lhat I lIlC'lItion .h he said, "So it would SI!cm he was an ot her agent o f infl uence who has becn placcd in Ill y offi ce, and thw.:fo re I I11 lg ht he SUbj('lt to t hi s Idtist Infiul'nce. ~ ss

As his politicill allies lind others were being roun ded up, Dr. Ma ha lhir had laid journalist friends repeatedly he did not be lieve tlu.'y were guilty.Sf,

Two wl'~ks after bl'l'Om ing priml' minister, with Mus:! as his deput y and home affai rs minister, Dr. Mahalhir rci t'ased 21 peopl t' oci ng held under the Internal Security Act, induding thoSC' silcrificed in Ghai'..1 li 's desperate bid for power. Some were broken in hea llh, spirit and fi nancially by til(' time they were tieed. Others who survived incarceration in better shape, notably Sam ad ]smalJ ,nlel /\ bdullah Ahmad, returned to promi nent pos!-tiom. Samad worked as t'dlt orla l adviser to h is o ld newspaper gro up, received an honorary doctora te from a uni w rsity that la uded him as a "champion of the Malay language, and a poJitkal activist and genuirw nationalist", and was knighted by Malaysia's king.H Abdu llah reslI med his political career as a member of parliament and later was appointed editor-in-chief of the New Strait!> Time!> jJublishing group.

Dr. Mahathir had a fairly miSerable five year:. a!> deputy prime minister, quite apart from dodging Ghaza li's hullet~ . Although Hussein Onn had

cho~en Dr. Mahathir as hi~ deputy, he did not ~e-cm to tikI.' him person all y lind often ignored him. In Dr. Mahathir's a~sessrnent, Hus~ein treated Ghazali 5h3fie and Tengkll Hazaleigh Hamlah ilS de facto deputy preT11icr~, consu lting Ghazali on defence and security. and Tcngku Ral.aleigh on ccon -omiD, finance and party affairs . ~1!

rheoretically the S{'cond most powerfu l man In Ma la ysia, Dr. Maitathir found his title (.-ouoted for almost nothing with Number One. Under tll(' impressron that "I had innuence with him", Dr. Mahathir went to sec Hussein to persuade him not to proceed with till' IlrOSl'cution of Haru n [dris for corruption . "lIe took out the file from his safe and banged it on the table." said Dr. Mah at hir. "Then I realil.ed that . a lthough I may be the deputy prime minister, my standing is not thal hi ~h . " lIusseln got IUSl as ilngry when Dr. Mahathlr tried to persuade him to re-examine Abdu llah Ahmad 's case.S'I At times, relations between Jiussein ilnd IJr. Mahathlr almost broke down. Musa Hitam ree;lIl('d visiting the deputy prime minis-ter's office when Dr. MalhJthir was complaining about Hussein. ~ I lifted the phone and :iaid, 'Tal k to him. YOu 're the deputy. Talk to him'. No, no , no. He never did."(l

It was extremely lru:itrating for I)r . Ma hathir, who was already bursting with many of the idea s that would mark his leadt-rship. He advoca ted a freewilY to run the length of peninsula r Ma1e allowed to go to the Cabinet for other ministerial opinions. "And, of cour~(', he agreed. you know," T('ngku Raza lcigh said. "You go up to him and explain to him ni cely, he'JI accept il." That I('ft Dr. Milhathir "very unhappy with me", Tentku R(ll.1Idgh said.

~ lIe thought that he being deputy prime minister couldnt gct t hillg~ through, but I (QuId go and whislX'r to Ilussein (lnd everyth ing was OK."6-1

Not only was there no personal chem istry betwet>n leader and deputy, tlley ilbo had starkly contra~ting stylc~. Wher{'as I)r. Mahathlr was ke{'n 10 remake the country from top to bottom, Hussein was cau llolIS to the point of dithering. When reading a !)rid, he underH m'd key words three o r four ti mes. Loath to make a tough decision be/ore consuillng all parties, he would usually agft'e to "consider it" a:-. a way of postpOning an out-come. One of his favourite expressions was, "O K, I' ll slt-ep over it."/o-l 11 (' onc(' advi~ed Dr. Mahathir that ~when yOll have a problem, illst don't do .rnything"; It would go away, he ~aid.b~

Even when Hussein reached a decision , he might ha w second thought ... For example, Dr. Mahathir per~uaded him that MalaYSia should strengthen ih claIm to part of th!' disputed Spratly Island~ in the South Chi na Sea by llCl"Upylng Amboyna CIY. With th e navy ready to move in, Hussein "c hanged his mind one wel'k later", said ])r. Mahathh/!6 The VietnamesE' bea t the M(llaysians to the purtell and established a permanen t preSence on the cay.

In a cabi net shuffle in 197M. Dr. Mahathlr relinquished the education portfolio and bec,1me minister for trade and Indll~try, where he was happy to proceed with some of his plans that did not require govermnent policy changes. He estab li shed II heavy industries corporation within his minbtry, and minim ized his unhappi ness with Hussein by spending time abroad

~clli ng Malaysia . Dr. Mahath ir 'S fOllr years as education minister were remembered for the tough stand he had taken agai nst Hudcnt and acad-emic protests. Ill' forced ~cholarship holders to loign guarantees that Ihey would not bc(:Ollle involved in politics, and amcndl'd the Uni vcrsilie~ ;\c1 to give the gov('rnmcnt cxtensive diSCiplinary powers over staff and students who were politica lly actlve.61

L~ventua lly, Husscl n fell vi ctim to his own ph ilosophy. /\ s Ihe work piled up, elemen ts in UMN O defied his weak l eadcr~h ip by fo rcin g the readmis-sio n of lIanlll Idris to UMNO, aft er Hussein had insi sted on hi s expul sion followillg his convi ction Oil corruption charges. Alt hough Haru n 's nmrt :Ippeals fa iled In early 1978 and he \\' ('nt to jail, liussei n was being prl'ss(>d to pardon him. At the 1978 UM NO Gencrill Assembly. Hussein was hum il -Iated by being chall cngC'd fo r the presidency of the party by Sutaima n Palestin, the UMNO publicity chief, who ~ecured just over one-fifth of the VOtes. While Sulaiman was not a S('riollS contender for na\lOllil1 k'adershi p, his candida cy was ;m act of defiance by I fllflm su pporte rs. As a fri end of

Slliaiman who OPI)()sed I larun 's prOsecroo. S Inll'rvlt'w with T\lnku AW ullah Tuan~\I Mxl ul ROliulia ll, 22 Marth 2007. Tunku

Abdullah pasSI..'(, lrlI. Ihal th e Malay~ IJCkC'(lthe ability and l"Onticil'nc(' 10 sun:cc\l, did hl' change 11 i~ mind. -I "d mit th"t al the linK' J f('it very dbal)J1'Oln tl'(i. I ~pok(' to m;lIly p

50 Inl('rvlcw with MU"'1 Ili t",1I, J January 2007. S 1 ln h:rv l('w With Abd ullah Ahmad, 26 February 20Q7. 52 Intl'rvl('w with Musa "Ham, :q anl.la ry 2007. 53 S. Il u ~l n All, /'wo ,,'r1rf's (lk/rll /lim lViI/will Trill /} (l't'la llngJaya: IN$,\ N, 1996),

p. I09. 54 Zalnuddln Maldlll, fill: Ot/u', Shit, of M(l//(/ f/llr, pr . H-H. 55 [nlcrvl('w with Mah .. thll Moham:ld, 20 lIIIa/ch 2007. 56 7...ainuddln ~ I a[din. 'n,.., 0 111('( Side.- af MII/IlIIMr, p. 73. 57 Samld ismail pa\scd ,Iway un 4 September 2008, ag('(j K4. 58 IntcIViI:w with Abdullah Ah rn3d, 30 \-lay 2007. 59 In tcr.h.'w " It il M~halhir Muh3U13d, 14 \ IIJo:\lst 2007. 00 Jrner1;!cw with Mu~ iliUm. 3 J3 11U3ry 2007. 6 1 Inler ... h.'w whh Mahath1r Moh'lIllad, 14 AugU~l z007. 62 Jrlll'I\'ll;W with l engku Razal('igh lIalrll'Lh. 29 MJ)' 2007. 63 Ibid. 64 Interview with M\l~;1 lIi1 am . . '1 lanuary 2U07. r..s In l t'f\'lcw wllh r>.l ahiLthir Mohamad, :'1 I March 2(x)". 66 In \(~rvlew wllh Mahalh ir MohamJd, 14 ALlgU~t Z007. 67 JI)hn hrnSh)ll, "1'011 11 1":1 1 C,lfet'rs o f Mahathir MohalTlad and AnWllr Ihrllhlm :

r

Lil t'- Ion.; union : Mah31 hl r married Siti Hasmah, hi's flf~1 and only girlfrknd. after Ihl."Y nll:1 a ~ rJled lcal Siuden h al un i \"~rsi ly. Th l'Y cekuralrtl Iheir S2nt! wl'tldlng lUIfII\tr--ary in 2008.

SoUltl ... , l 'l'rd.ma l .c-adNShlr) ~ound.lll on \ p.1rlncr!ohip: Although ~hl' \I c".'.'d cil'ar of poIIUt\. ';Itl 11,"m~h wa, new r far from her hu~band's 5id{'". !lilt' anompa nit.'(1 .\oIah.l lhlT to rarty gal hl Tln g~. political rall i l.'"S .1Ild MKial functlon ~. o fl t'n tra\'dling abmad with him as well

'6

II.aods on: 1\I\cr he !x"i,:aml' prime minhtf.'r, :..iahalhir 1001.. a p.:r;.onal inl\'rC'lt In no.:arly every JSpt.'Ct of ~ralayslall nfl.'. Here, he and Sill Ilasmah in~p .. :("1 Mal.l), lextlll ... :'111 uaft cenUe In Kuala [umpur . .... mra: Informillion ',,"p.llltll

o rr d ut y: DC~plh! tOlal i0101l:l"5lon In po lill~ , Mahat hir efl

Part II Prime Minister for Life, Almost

3 From Outcast to Presidentia l Premier

Alt hough he swept into offICe with thl' Intensit y of i . typhoon, Dr. Maha thir moved cautiously 10 consolidate his l)Osltion opportunistically dcposccl. Wh ile intr

Although J1r. Mahathl r did nOt murder t'yond what previously had I:>een accepta ble behav-Iour in Ma laY!ilall politiCS - att ributes they wert' pleasl,(j to report they I(lckcd. Musa, who scrwd as Dr. Mahathir' ~ fITst dcputy prime Illini~ter before quit-ting in aCri mony, butl'nded up on comfortable terms with Dr. Maha thlr, s

45 minutes on them, start ing with the English-Ianguagl' NI'w S(mits Times, followed by th(' Millay- language UtI/sail ,'''a/nysiu, before going on to the others. He had lime only to scan Ill(' headli nes, read art icles of im mediate interest and mark others to read lat ef, In th(' car or at horne . Dr. Ma ha th ir usually went homl;.' to have lunch and di nner with his wife, leavi ng the office between 6 and 6:30 p.m. at the end o f the da y. If they did not have an evening function, he would read or write, rar(' ly watching l V - "because I li ke to ~ doi ng things, lIot just silting down" - before sck'(:ting his wardrobe for the next day, lind retiri ng abou t I I p.m. for six or sevcn hours sl{'('p.

Dr. Mahalh ir did his best to in ject his sense of pu rpose in to his min ister-ial colleagucs and the bureaucracy. In th e officc, as at hOI11(', he cou ld be aggressive and de man ding if Ihere wNe delays in wh at he wa nled done. lz CiYil servants were req ui red to Wi.'a r nametags for easy iden liflCation by the public in case of poor service, and they had to clock in and out for work. He also wore a nametag. It simply said "Mahat hir". Everywhere Dr. Mahath ir went he carriL'd a notebook in which he re("Orded th ings that needed attention : from iI meeting with a potential ill vest or to dir ty drai ns and poor street lighti ng. UNotliing was too small and noth ing too big," sa id Daim Zainuddin, who twice served as fi n ance ministerY Dr. Mahath ir opened his weekly cabinet meeting by pulling out his notebook, reading h is en tries and calling for action by the relevant min isters. Sometimes he produced h is own photos as evidence. He gave a si milar pocket-sized note-book to each minister amI encouraged Ihem all to adopt his habit.

A techno logy buff, Dr. Mahal hir realized the potentla l of info rmation technology befo re his colleagues aTHI to ld the-m it wou ld revolution ize daily lifl and the way business was conducted. 1-Ie ensured a ll ministers were given computers in the early 1980s, even though few knew how to use them.14

Fearful that he would run out of t ime to introd uce h is fa r- reach ing reform agenda, Dr. Mah athlt was always in a hurry. His greatest regret was that he "began late"; at 56, he was th e oldest person to be sworn in as Malaysia's leader. ls Just as he read books between customers as a teenage street vendor ami between patients as a doctor, he shortened his signature as prime minister to a scrawled "M", in place of il flowing "Maha th ir bin Moh amad", to save timeY' lie disdained golf, the game of Sou theast ASian diplomacy, because it took too long to play. In 1996, a t 71, after he had bC'Cn prem ier fo r more than IS years. Dr. Mahat hir said, "I don' t th ink I shou ld waste time. [don't know how much longer I have."17 In reli re-ment , discussing his developme nt record across two decades, he remarked. "I did n' l haw lTludl time." I~

One way Dr. Ma hat hi r cou ld have saved a lot of tilll(' Wil~ to le I hi s staff draft h is speeches. common practice everywhere. But he insisted on writing his own, leaving his press secretary, when he was deputy pr(' rnier, wit h lillie to do except arTil ng{' media con ferences an d prepare short fo rewords for sOllvenir program mes. I ... Whi le Dr. Mahathi r could not possi bly write all

FI(lm UII/mSI/o I'r('sidelllial Pr('mia 57

.. I 111\ Sl){'eches as prime mi nister - he deli vered thousands - his forceful, dh t.l ltiC style was recognizable in many of them.l Speeches wril\('n by ullll'r\ "do not reflect my th inking, or my way of putting the words in to "lI llnces", he said. Alt hough he ()Tlce could touch typc, he chose to labour ,m,ly on cach speech in longha nd. "[ fee] sa ti sfi ed writing it myself," hc ... Iul. 'I

Dl'splte intense pressures, Dr. Mahathir had no t rouble relaXing . [-Ie \\'Iluld nap most days for IS min utes after lu nch at home in a comfort- hll' th air. in the car wh ile being driven to an appointment , or on a fl ight, oI(Tlvlng reJreshed .. n Even a~ he aged, Dr. Mahathir showed li tt le sign o f ll.lHHlng. For instan ce, in 2003 he {"onducted, alert and han ds-on, the .111111131 meeting o f t iH' International Advi sory Panel of Malaysia's I\llIhlmedia Su per Corridor. From 8 iI. lll. to 6 p.m., he asked and answered thoughtful questions, received members in his house for dinner a t 8 p.m. .lIId personally saw them off at J I p.m. "That is 11 d ear fi fteen hours." IJh\Crved Naraya na .It Murthy, an Indian businessman and panel member.

~ I 01111 sure there arc IlOt ma ny 78- yea r-Old people who can exh ibit that 1.1lld of mental and physical energy."2.1

Ol1e reason Dr. Mahal ilir could rest eas y was that he never made mis-t,lkcs, or at least none that he admitted. He rebuked Musa l lit

S8 M"/"ysillli Mm'i'rkk

Ihlt Dr. Ma hath lr went ahead, turn ing his personal o rdeal into a nil lio nal triumph.

One of !he few times Dr. Mahathir ap~art'(1 vulnerable was whe n con-fronted by flowers on whkh pollen was visible, which caused him to have asthmatic attacks. I k was also allergic to fea thers and d ust, once suffering severely on Layi ng Laying, a Ma laysia-claimed outpost in the disputed Sprat ly Isla nds, aftN enco untering migratory birds. And, fo r all his self-control and gru ff d

cou ld have played to win also," Tengku Razaleigh sa id, "but I was tx.>ing too fair - beca use H's in Ihe same party, you know . W .... 'r~ no t fig hting anolh .... r P.lrt y."H

In a ran(orous ra(.'e with Musa, Tengku Razalclgh was the early favourit .... , but his declaration tha i h(' could not lose and would leave the Cabinet if he d id so work(.>d aga inst him in a community that valued comprom is(" and

polJtcness . I.~ Musa won by a vote o f 722 to 5 17. When Tengkll Razaleig h nominllled agili n illld challeng(.'d Musa for the deput y presidency in 1984, Dr. Mlihathir WilS m uch more confident of his own leadersh ip, havin g stet'red UMNO to an impressive victor}' in a general election in 1982. Ii(' openly !laded hi .. deputy thi.s time, helping Musa we;!lhe r anot her roill ng contest to retain his post by a slightly wider milrgi n.

After using Musa to daml~n the threat from Tcngku Ra7.alcigh, Dr. Mahath lr rcversl"(l their Toles to ensure MuSil did not build too strong il power basc In UMNO. MlISlI wanted Tengku Razalcigh out of tlw govt'rnment altogether, on the groundS that his presence would perpctuatt' a growing split within the party. Indeed, Musa was under t hc imprcs~ion he !tad i111 "unwritten agree-ment" with Dr. Ma llathir that Tt.'llgku l~a7.ak'igh would be pu rged from the Otbinet and denied any nominatl"(i post in UMNO if he contestl'd again in 198-1 and 10st .:16 Instead, Dr. Mahathlr shifted Tengku Razalelgh to the Ministry 01 Trade and Industry, while replacing him as UMNO treasurer. like Tengku Razaleigh earlier, Musa and his backers considered th .. t Dr. Mahathlr had brokt'n Ilis promise, o r at l('ilst half of it.

Although trade and industry was less prestigious tllport-ers. In a cOllfldentialletter of protest to Dr. Mahat hlr that was leaked, Musa listed all the patronage points available to Tengk u Raza leigh, including granting import permits, rl>COlIlmending local partners fo r fore ign investors and nominating individual s for the distribution o f shares. Musa said Tengku RazaJeigh would have "t he greatest opportun ity ever to prepare hirnself for his politica l future, eve n better than jinl l:inance".n In truth, Dr. Milhat h ir kept Tengku Razaleig h's candidacy alive fo r a third clas h in 1987, just In case the pri rne minister needed to cuI Musa off at the knt'es.

Whi le Dr. Mahathir did not invent Ihe info rmal system of checks and balances to rest rai n rivals and remind o thers they WeTe In constant compe-ti tion for the prime mi n ister's favour, he em braCl'

stakes and sha qX'lled compcli tion fo r government contracts, privatization awards and other bene(IIS.

Musa Hitam 's abrupt reSignation as deputy prem ier and hom e affa irs min ister in early 1986 opened more flss ur(,s with in UMNO, and confir med three years of rumours of trouble inside what was dubb('d Iht' 2-M adminis-tration. Dr. Mahat hir had never liked the label, bestowed by the local press, gnllnbling that it shou ld have lx.'Cn understood to mean Mahathir Mohamad rather than Mahathir-Musa. Sure enough, when the breach {.ame, at the heart of the friction was Dr. Mahathir's umviction thai Mu.sa .saw himself as nearly eqllal and want("'(1 his jOh prematurely.

Admittedly, the two had sharply cont rastillg political styles. While Dr. Mahathir was asS

thai techn ically Ill' could remain prime mi nister if he lost thc presidency. and that o nl y II vole of no-confidence in i'a rliam('n t would remove him.

Malay~la's Con .. Utlt tloll ..... as silent on both polnls. Since Or. Mahathir was unpred lcta hl e and was acqu iring a reputation for m,tking his own rules, noLxxly could be surl,' how he would react if the vou' went against him. Ills own ltuPlxHtcrs were apprehensivl'. As one of them said, Dr. Ma t1

66 Malaysiatl M(lverick

The round-up profoundly shocked the nation bccause Dr. Mahath ir had cultivated a f:tvour,lble image over t ill' ISA, encouragi ng the hope tha t it might la pse into disuse eventually . [Il his fi rst six years as premier, hUII-dfl>(ls of people held without trial had been r('[eased , leaving only suspected hard-core subVersives still in jail. Mo reover, Dr. Mahath ir told [a wyers how he had feared arrest un de r IIw [SA afler being expelled from UM NO in

1969.~$ And, as deputy premier, be had narrowly escaped being implicated in UMNO factio na l fIgh ti ng that saw innocent allies incarcerated.

Dr. Mahath ir, howc"cr, maintained that the 119 detai!l('('S were fanning the names of Tacial unrt'st and religious zealotry. "Preventive action must be taken now to S;IVC tile cou nt ry from disastrous ri01S," he told Parliament'"' Residents of the capitalundollba.'dly were reJieVl'd t hat the silu at ion had 1x"en defused, though they nol'(.'d thm UMNO was a major contributor to escalati ng tensions and thil t the govern ment waited fa r too long before damping down. While no doubt some of tht' pa rtici pants in the ugly communal debates were behind iJars, Hone of the high-profile UMNO organizers and instigators, most con-spicuously Nailh, had been arrested .

In fact, most of the detain('('S had no con nection with recent developments in Kuala Lumpur. !\ more common {eaturt' W,lS that they had opposOWt' r, they were usually considered no more than irritants. nUl with UMNO diVided, they were providing ammunition for Dr. Ma hath ir 's factional rivalsY

Cha nd ra MUlllffar, 40, a political scientist who fo unded an d Il'd th l' mul ti -racial reform Illovement Al iran - small but in fluential and based in Penang - was probably tht' most sllCCt'SSflll [n stirring broader aWaretlt'SS

revoca tion of their publishing licences by the home affairs mi nistry, though restored the following year, left Malaysia for the tim(' being wil hout a ma jor paper not controlled by UMNO. Although the Slar, which (arried a weekly column by Ihe pa per's publlsher and the count ry's fIrst priml' min ister, Tun ku Abdul Rahma n, had been the most Ou'sr~)ken. Its crit icism of t he govern men t was fairly mi ld. That ca utious line wa s understandable, as the Star had \)ce ll owned since 1977 by a government party, the Malaysian Chinese Association . The paper's disappearance meant the UMNO-ownt'(l New :)trait.5 Times had almost no competition for English-language readers. "We ,Ire on the road to dictatorship," S

70 Malay~iclll Maw'rick

Ilaving been thwarted al limes by the cou rts, however, an aggrlcwd and aggressive Dr. Mahath lr fell dlffef{'ntly. In privat e, one of his fa vou rite sloga ns became, "Hang the lawyers, ha ng the judges." ss Oeep In h is heart, Dr. Mahathir fou nd it hard to res lX'

72 M{/Ia~ic/ll MClwrfcl.:

th e ill-fated efforts of his ri vals since the R('glstrar of SocietlL-s came under his Home Ministry. When fo llowers of Tengku Razaleigh, un der the nom ina l leadership of ex-premiers Tunku Abdul Rah man and Hussein On n, tried to register UMNO Malaysia, t hey were refused. The registrar told them that UMNO, though illegal, had not yet b("('11 deleted from the list of societies. A little latl' r, Dr. Mahathir's groul) had no such trouble registeri ng UMNO Haru, or New UMNO, which IJcfore long was referred to as simply UMNO. Dr. Mahath ir bt.'Came mcmber numlJcr 000000 1, and subsequently would refer to il as "my" party. '!!

Hy registe ring a new party befo re wai ti ng to see if the UMNO 11 wo uld app(~al within the 30 days allowoo, Or. Mahathir had painted himself into a corner. A sllcc('ssful appeal would restore t he legal ity of UMNO from which Dr. Ma hath ir and his fo llowers would be excluded under UMNO's constl tu tio n, beC1Hlse they now belonged to anot her political party . The UMNO II had not planlH.'(llo 3PI'('a ' , but decided to do so on the r('Com IlH' nda\lOIl of t heir lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who realized the impllc.ltlOn s lat( in the day. Shafe{"s notic{' of appea l, filed on day 29, C

Ih(' Lord President, Tun Salleh Abas, and some other things. That's the reason".t'"

Or. Mahathir's con tention Ihat he was carrying out the king's instruction that Salleh be sacked sal oddly with established IHal-t ice and the prime minister's own fi ercely held view that the mo narchy had no place in po lit-ical 'Iffa irs . Under the Co nstit utio n, the king acted o n the adv ice of the prime minister, not th e oth er way arou nd. Wh en he wa s no longer king, the Sultan of 10hore apologized to Salleh for his role in S;lllch 's di smissa l, sayi ng he was "made use o r" in 1988.1>1 The sultan in vited SaJleh to his palac(' and expressed regret over wh at had happened more than fou r years earlier. "In the meeting. the 10hore Sultan openly asked for my fo rgiveness ix'eause of his involvement ill the move to d ismi~ me as the lord president in 1988," Salleh said / 06

/\fte( he left po litics, Dr. Ma hat h ir sai d the king also had been upset by another let ter from Sallch , sent earlit'r, in which Salle h co mplained about noise d uring repai r work at the king's palace, near Sa lleh 's ho use.1>7 When the cha rges against Salleh were published, however, royal di spleasure over renovatio ns wa~ nOI one of them. Rat her, lIIany ~telllmed from speec hes and in t erview~ Salk'h had givl'n, and some even related to his l>e haviour after suspension,

[n essence, Salleh was accused of bei ng biased against tile government. The proceedings against him were considered by independe nt legal experts to be high ly improper in several respects. For a sta rt, Or. Mahathi r, as his accusl'T, got to 1li1111(' t he six-member tribuna l. Onl y one judge met the principle of being of superior rank to SaHeh, d l'spite the availability of suitable cand idates, wh ile th e incl usion of the speaker of the liouS(> of Itl-prcscntativcs was inappropri ate under Malaysia 's separation of powcrs doc-trine, Thc tribunal refused Sal1eh 's appilc,1t ion fo r the hearill l)s to be open, and declincO 10 ;td journ to give his British counS('llime to appear for hi m.

The p.1rticipation of I lamid Omar "made a mockery of the whole proccss".bI! As acti ng lord preSident, Hamid stood 10 be confirmed in that position if Salleh was convictl"(I, and as chairman he would cast the deciding vote if the pa nel was dead lockl'arty as one of the 20 judges who approved the letter written by Salleh to the king,

,\ lthough the public did nOl know, [[a mid, too, was vulnerahle to pressure, having lost ,I considerabk- amount of mOtley investing in a compa ny that sub-sCtjueTu ly [>crformed poorly . lI is financial losses, as well as sodal indiscrt'-tions, w(' re known to the- gOV('W TlHmt, having been circu[at('(1 In a SlIraf

Il/y(m.~, the con tcnts of which he confi rmed, in a private iTllervi ew, to be accu-rate.~ lIamid told a Bar Council delegation that urged hilll not to accept a role in the tribunal he fcared h(' would be dismissed if he refused . "If I am sackl'd, will you or the Bar Counci l coTll[X'nsate my [0SSl'S of remuneratio n," he said.m

Convi nced he could not gel a fa ir hearing, Salldl withdrew and sough t an order from the I-ligh Court 10 halt the t ribunal for b('illg allegedly

FrOlIl OUI(I.~ 1 /(J l 'II');I(/"lIli(1I l 'r(mi(or 75

unconstitutional and il legal . Failing to gel a respollse and fea ring the tri-bunal was within days of submitting its report to the king, Salleh 's colT nsel sought a temporary ban from th(' Supreme Court. The most senior judge _ considering that the lord president was suspe nded and thai the acti ng lord president was involved in the hearing - took the initia tive and con-vened a ftvemember panel that iSS Lled the stay order. Soon aftef, those live judges werc also slIspe nded, aftcr a complaint by Hamid that they con-spirecl to hold a special session of the court wi thout hi s approva l. A second tribu nal was esta bllshed to hear charges of gross misbehaviour agai nst th(' five.

The first tr ibuna l's report , dcsc rilx-d by an eminent Q UC

The judge anonymo us ly c irculated II ]].page document li sting 112 ai le gation s of impropriety: 39 charges of corruption, 21 or abuse of power, and 52 o f mi scon duct, im mora lity or oth er indiscretions. 7H The government forced the judge, Sycd Ahmad Idid Syed Abd ullah ,\; did, to resign, but d id not prosecute him, even though it declared his allegations baseless and said all the dozen judges q uestioned by illwsligators were clean .

What many regarded as till' "finaillail hammered into the coffin of jud i ctal independence" was anot her constitutional amendment i.n 1994.7'1 Apa rt from restrUCturing Mala ysia's judicial hierarc hy, it al lowed a judge 10 be dismissed for breach ing a pro posed, government prescri bed code of ethks. Although t he rest ru ct uring, to create an appelll co url al home followi ng the aboliti on of appeals to the Privy Council in Bri tain in 1985, was nec('ssary, the adoption of new nomencl ature arous{'d suspicion. The Supreme Court reverted to its origi na l na me, the Fede ral Court, and the lord preSidl'llI became Ill(' cllief justice. Seemingly innocent, the renamillg l'xerc ise could be percejwd as furt her subt le dim inutio n of the prest ige of the jud iciary,!IO

Later, Dr. Mahal hir sai d It would have made no difference if a fuJi pane l of the Supreme Court had considered the apIX';11 aga inst the judgment out -lawi ng UMNO. I-Ie said UMNO "w,mted noth ing more than t he valida ti on of the electio n resu lts maki ng mc president and Ghafar Baba deputy presi. den t".NL Without ex plaining how he wou ld haw dealt wit h two UMNOs, had Ihl' aPI.>Cal by the UMNO tl bee n successful, Dr. Mahath ir sa id thaI even i f tile full bench had hea rd the appeal, "I ' m quite sure tha t I'll some-hQw or oth er manage to stay on as leader of UMNO. "k2 :\S it was. Hamid. Dr. Ma hathlr's choia~ fo r lord president, hamll..'d him ,I clea r-cu t victory.

tn March 1988, befort' the fi n,ll court decisioll on the lega lity of UMNO, the government had allw nded tll

what l'ould tn' co nst rued as 11 move agai nst Or. Mahat h lr in vited poli tical obli vio n . If he could d estroy Mu sa ,lIId Tengku Hazal elgh, he would 1I0t hesi tate to snu ff out their own political CiUl'er~ - and the good life en loyed by them and thl'ir fr iend s. Mu s(I called It "a poli ti cal Mahathir thi ng" : the prime min lstl' r's "abili ty to create this worry, hl'Cau~e if yOll are so powerfu l nobody dares challenge you . And he managl'l1lo crcate thai impr('ssion. And nobody darlod, indeed. "ss

Stili , Dr. Mahathir took no ch ances. After his narrow sq ul'ak in 1987, Ne ..... UMNO'~ constitu tion was changed to makl' it a lmost impOSSible for anyone to cl1 fo re the Gen~ra l Assemhly that Ghafa r had no choice but t'O step down. Anwar not only ~ame vil.x' president unopposed; he also brough t to power a slatl' of th ree vice presidents known as the Vision Tea m, while other fo llowers capt ured most sea ts 0 11 t he Su preme Council.

f rom Ollle,,!>t to 1'"."si l/t 1lf/lt/ [>rrmil!"f 79

Thl' results signalled da nger for Dr. Mahathir, tho ugh also a warni ng for anyone tempted to try and exploit the sit uat ion , fo r Dr. Mahathir had shown he wa s poli ticall y ast ute, eve n lethal , when see min gly cornered. ;\na lySI$ ca lculated th,1I Anwar probabl y had enough con tro l of th t.' part y to fo rce Dr. Mah ath lr Into early reti rl' mcIlI before lo ng, If he so chose. Dr. Mahat hir was testy when as ked by journalists if he wa ~ lo~iT lg h is grip on UMNO. "Wou ld yO LI like to lx-t?" he reton ed . He made h is po int about still being boss by wailing a mo nth before officially maki ng Anwar deputy pri me minister. IT I ano ther move lO circumven t Anwar's advancemelll , he aplX)ill ted Mu hyldd in YasSin, who lOpped Ihe vice presld{'ntial poll for Anwar' s team, to a Ju nio r port fol io . Clearly nut confide nt, though , Or. Mahat hir invoked pa rty unity as it highl't cause than democracy and insisted o n a "no conl('S1 " agrccml'nl wilh Anwa r for their posit ions before 1999 .

Alt hough their relations were strai ned al time~, Anwar was still Oil track to succeed Or. Mahill hlr as of early 199H, but comp lications thai arose over the deelx'nill g effects of Ih e Asian economic crisis wrecked tra nsit ion plans. On 2 S('ptem ber, II day aft er introdUCing capHal controls, Or. Mahath ir sacked Anwar as deput y premier and finance minister, claimi ng he was morally llrlfit. The real rcason was that he believed Anwar was t ryin g to ta\..e advan tage of the l'COllomic uphea val to unsea t h im. On 3 September, the UMNO Supreme Council compi led with Dr. Ma hal h ir's demand lhal Anwa r be stripped of his deputy presidency and party membersh ip. On 20 September, /\n wa r was arrested under the ISA and hcld without access 10 a 1.lwye r or his family . When he appeared in COUft at the ('nd of the month, charged with ahuse of power and sodomy, he had a blal"k eye, the result of being bashed in custody.

I)r. Mahathir had learned from 1987, when the ru ling poli t ical e li te fractu red over the Tengku Rilzaleigh-Musa challengl'. Ry relTloving imme-dia tely any pmsihility that Anwar could makt' a return to UMNO politics, Dr. Ma hil lhi r was able to CMry the party's top leadershi p with him. But lower level leaders and the party rallk and fi ll', as with Malil)' society

Abdu llah was 59, scarcely representing the hopt' of regeneration in a pan y In d (.'cp trouble.

I\ppalled by the humiliat ion o f An war, the Ma lays routed UMNO in the 1999 general oots o n. An wa r supporters began deriding him as "prime mi nister for life".

Dr. Ma hathir s hatter~1 the irresolution In his closing address 10 the UMNO General Assembly In )Ull{, 2002, abrupt ly depart ing from h is text to .say he was resigni ng "fro m UMNO and all positions in the National Front~. As he broke into sobs, su pporters mobbed hi m at the podium, some o f them also In lears, imploring him to remain - a ll li ve on TV. Dr. Maha thir W,IS taken to a back room, and his deput y, I\ bdullah Badawi, appeared :Ifter an hour to Say he had been persu aded to stay on. Lale r, it was annoullced thilt il l' WOu ld rctirt' at the end of October 2003.

For 16 mo nt hs Dr. Mahathl r s{,lyed on in the pOSition he had vowed to avoid, as a la me duck priml' minister, making arrangements so that Malaysia would be run for the foresccable fulUre by hi s a noi nt ed leaders. IIC' e ll surl"d tha t Abdullah faced no con test in UMNO elections beforE' he ht.'

1(, 1n1('rview with Mahathir Moh:ullad , 14 ,'uguSt 2007. 17 "M(fim/~ WI A.du (Sub':UJgj;)";); I'elanm.' / Jcmlcl ''rU)flll(', :W jamklry 1999 (ac(l'SSL..:1 14 I A'CI:mher 2(06).

59 I)

84 M(li(lydm/ ,\ l m'l!rkk

79 1l. I', 1.('(', OHMitll/jUII,11 CO/JIIi(t~ ill COlltt'fIlJXIr1l'moc'r 2006, TawfIk is the old{'~!

'IOn of a (OIl11el deputy I)lim..: minister, the lat('hmal1 Abdul ltllh lllan. Dr. Mahat hir Imer dcnlL-d making the comment. Fk said Tawfik was dfOppt.>d 1",'Cause o( his ~lacUusuc I""rfunndllct'. Dr. Mllhathir Mohamad, NFilnah~ , 15 Ft..iln.ary 2009 (aro.~ 20 Man.-h 2009).

84 Gonioo " Mt'an~, -Malaysia in 1989: Forging a Plan for till' Future-, SOW/Wflst ,u;.", "f!itifl 1990, p. 186.

gS Eddin KII()() and Ja.)On Tan, "Transi tional 'nmcs", p , 25. 86 In-Won II wllIng.l't:rS(IIllIliled Politics, pr. 173.203, fn 110. g7 John funston, UMNO: What u>ga(j' Will Mahathh l.eaV('r, In RI'fItX'liulls. p. 135. Sg Ibid., p, 135, 89 ItS. MUm' .llltl l)l'IIlC K. M,lIlzy, M"I(ly,~illJ/ I'otitin Villi," AIItlllllllli" p. 1~(,. 90 Khoo 1100 T,'Ik, "Who Will Su('n ... "(1 the Sucn 'Ssor?", Alim n ,WmJ lllly, 2ou.1: 5, p. (I.

4 Th e Vision of a Modern Nation

Dr. Ma hathir wasted 110 ti me in t randormi n!; Mala YSia in li ne wit ll his visi on of II modern , indust rial il:ed natIon, sett ing !Ill' goal of hecoming full y d~'vclopl'd by 2020. Olle(' dominan t pri ma ry commodlt i~ s, al ready rec('d lng, gav(> way to t he prod uctiOn of manu fac lured goods and the embrace o f a high-tech fut ur('. Wit h the economy ('x pancl ing at an annual average r,lte o f 6.1 plor ("cnt for th" 22 years 11 (' was pri ml' minister, ' Malaysia was o l1 e of t he developing world'S most successful countries. [I was a ll the more im pressive for being a Musli m-ma jority nation, indicati ng tha I Isla m could bE" compat ible wit h represcntat ive govern men t and mod-crn i7.alion. That it was achieved wh ile a comprehensive affir mati v!.' actio n programme was being appJil'

WHh lX"r Glpita GOP almost quadmpling to about USS9,OOO in purchasi ng-power parity terms, poverty was red uced dramatically. Malaysia experienced accelerated urbanization, and sa ..... Ihe elllergence of a growi ng middle d ilss Ihat included a sign iflca nl number of Mala ys. Change was most visible in Kuala Lumpur, wherl' gleaming steel and glass tOWNS sprout(x\, wh ile lIl;m-sions appeared alongside lux urious condomini um bl(Kks in resIdent ia l ,I rea~ to

Without le!>)(.' ll ing his commitment to the Malays, Dr. Mahat hir subsumed hi ... mmt clH'rished goa l within a wid('r one, that of a rapidly modcrni7ing Malaysia able to compete and stand proudly with other economically SUI.: cessful lla liollS. Ur. Mahathir, the Malay champion, assum('(.i the mantle of a Malay!>I'1I1 na tionalist, adrusting the country's sights away from Malay versus Chinese to Malaysians against the rcst - usually the West. As one analyst put it, Dr. Mahathlr, al his most imaginative, looked decades ahead and enVisaged a society "in which the rahould spe nd gencrously, not

l u~t Keynesian-style with borrowed mOrley In economic downturns, but at 1III times. "I had this crazy Idea" that if Ihe governmen t outlays money, " it ,tlmu tates the economy ... . usually it generates a lot o f economic activity, ,lIld peopl e make money, and of course Ihey have to pay laxcs. so Ihe gov l'rnme n! gels back it s lll oney".lb Conv('rsely, "If you don 't spen d money, !hell the countr)' will not grow" .!? II went back to what a teach er had told 111m in primary school, that when Ihc Malayan government built Ihe railway IInc from Pena ng 10 l'adang Bcsar o n the OOrdl.'r wHh Thailand, settlements

90 M{/I(/~i(//! Mrllwirk

sprang up along the tracks.l~ Although he was pcrronally frugal, Dr. M:lhath ir spent (r(>ely and Malaysia's economy grew fast alo ng the li nl's he (il'cr('{'eJ , unh indered by such concept s as cost-benefit analysis and seemingly uncon-cerned about a future wit hout oil and gas.

Wit h a poor opi nion of the civil service and determined not to be ham-strung by resista nce, red tape and incompetence, Dr. Mah athir devised alter-native ways to speed up decision making and build mOmentu m fo r his initiatives, As he centra lized authority within the executive branch, he increasingly bypaS5ed til(' bureaucracy in favour of special planning lxxlies answerabk- to him , as well as independent state agencies and corporations.!" The Prime Minister's IJcpanment was lIlore inlluentialthan any of the regular min istries, containing nat ional oil and gas company I'Nronas and the EcolI-om ic Planning Unit, as well as the politically powerful Attomey General Chambers, Anti-Corruption Agency, Public Service Commission, F.k'Ction Com mission and others.

Or. Mahath ir's partner o n the economy fOr much of the time was lawyer-turned-busin ess man 0 3im Z..1 inmld in . Servi ng twice as finance minister, fro m 1984 10 199 1 and from 1998 to Z00 1, Daim was at other times a go\'-l'mment e('ono mi c adviser. Wilen tile A~ian fin an cial c ri SiS spread to Malaysia In 19')7, I)r. Mahalh ir brought Daim Ilac k to IH.'ad an emergency task fon:e that undercu t I~ank Negara and the finance min ist ry. [)[liln was made mi nister with sp('cial functions in early 1998, before becoming fman ee mi nist('T fo r th(' ~tcon d time la ter that year. He was UMNO trea-surer th roughout this ('ntirt period, (rom 1984 to 200 1.

Both frOI11 Kcdah, Dr. Mahathi r and Oairn enjoyed a fr iendsh ip tha t con-tributed to the image and tone of the Mahathir adm in istratioJl . By h is actions, O:lim made II clear he was not going to let conventiona l notions of confli c t of interest interfefl' with the way he ran h is private busin ess empire, the ('("o no my, or UMNO's financial affairs. Tht'y became deeply entangled . Dal m's provocativl' stance added to the perception that th(' gov-ern ment WilS conducti ng its business firs t and forel11ost fo r the benefit of insiders. Although they remained on talking terms, Dr. Mahath ir and Uaim fell out politically and parted ways in 200 1, with Dr. M..1 halhir making the extraordinary comment that he was tired of defending Dainl against allega-tions of corruption, " trying 10 whit('wash him, lilcra lly". zoThl' sam(' accu sations had not undu ly t roub lryone who milttereel knew h(> had Dr. ~ahath jr 's ear and stead-1,1\1 backing. In return, he was loyal.

Known to hi s friends as "Muscles", the soft-spoken and diminutive Da im, who usually shunned the press and often conducted business d ressed III ICans, a cas ual bat ik shirt an d sandal s without socks, saw no reaso n to ~ h :lI1ge his ways becausc he was in th e Cab inet. lie dismissed concerns ,llIout his overla pping publk and pr ivate int er('sts . All accelerated acqu iS-ItIon ~pree , in which Daim boug ht signlflrant stakes in food, pro p(' rty and hllilding- nlaterials colTllJ

provisio n fo r Ih(' minister to delegate au thorit y fo r )uch approvals. And neit her d id It provide fo r the Cabin et to play a ll Y ro le in the ap proval process.

After Dr. Mahath ir announced in 1986 tha t l1lilli s tc r ~ , dep uty ministl' rs and their immed iate family would no lo ng(,r be ahle to buy shares in com-pa nies and woul d be req uired to red uce an y existi ng hold ings, Dalm's plan ned sa le of his controlling illlerest in Un ited Malayan nan ki ng Corpora tion proved ('v('ry bil as contentious as ilS purchase. He sold o ut to slate-ownl'(! P(rb.1danan Nasional Bhd., the previously cO+domi nant sha re-ho ld('( th at h;'ld not subscribed to a prefe rent ia ll y priced rights Issue in 1985, which had a llowed Daim to take outrigh t cont rol of the ba nk. A year later, the sta te en terprise was paying at least I~MZ7 million m Orl' for those sha res, b,m kers estimated, though the price was not disclosed.25

Announci ng his Lo ok East policy in late 198 1, Dr. Mahat hir sOllght a paradigm shiH in the men tali ty of Mala ysians, ~speclally in the Malay-do minated bureaucracy, wh ich had dl'l'lOmetimes depict('s. Their prizes included ,Ill offi ce block ami convention centre for UMNO, a new hl'adquarters fo r the Nationa l Equity Corporation, and a 55-storey tower for sta te-con troll ('(1 Ma layan II.Ul king 13M.

None (:aust'(( more offence than the RM 3 13 mi ll ion contrart awarded by the gov~nllnent to twoJapancse wmpanles to build the sprawling Dayabumi (."omplex in Kuala Lu mpur, then MalaYSia's most ex pensive building, even though a loca l compan y bid RM7J million less. Dr. Mahathir's dcfenC(', tha t the jap.1nese would Introduce new management skills and modern build-Ing techn iques, proved hollow. The bumiput ra ('ngineering com pany that the japanese were req uired to work with subsequently complai ned that its japanese part ners were using II merely 10 maintain good relations wi th the government, and said that no technology transfer was taki ng place. 1l

Complain ts that Malaysia was reaping few t a ng ibl~ benefit s fro m \"ook bast ex tended into Hade, in vest nU'n t, management and sh ipping. After nea rly three years, Ma laysia's trade dellcit with Japan had widened sharply, and the Ma laysians had lit tle success in persuadi ng th (' Japanese 10 buy more o f their manu facturi..'(1 goo ds. japanese co mpanies were slow to invest In skill -i ntensive indust ries in Mala ysia , and even slower to transf('T new tcchno logy to their Mal aysia n un its and establish research and develop-ment facilitil'S in the count ry. They also tended 10 bypass local contractors and suppliers and acq uire co mpo nents, materials and services from japan_ Japa nese manu facturing cmnpan i~ empl oyed more expatria te managers and staff than most ot her fore ign in vestors, locking Ma laysi ans out of decision- maki ng functions ancl itLhi hitln !l. thei r career dt;veloprnelll. Wit h appea ls to Japan to use mo re Ma laysian vessels fo r th eir bila teral trade going unheeded, the sh ipping imbalance contributed to a large and widen-In g defi ci t in their invisible trade as weil .1.l

In a hard.h itt ing speech in August 1984 that reeked o f embarrassment , Dr. Mahath ir registered his unhappiness over the way Malaysia'S rela tio ns

9 4 Mulil)'Sic/ll ,\1,wl:'ri(/c

with japan had f .. lled to c:volve. Accusi ng Tokyo o f co nductil1g a colo nia l economic relationship, he said the Japanese ('(:onomy was ext remely pro-teclion ist, and the Japanese were guilly of "improper behaviour" o ver ai r rights while engaging in " the dishonest and tensio n-generati ng" practice o f t ransfer prici ng, by wh ich companjes show mini mal profit, or even losses, to avoid taxes. "We cannOt and will nOl remain merely as hewers of wood and d rawer~ of worI orien ted IIlan ufacturi ng was insu ffi ciell t. "W(' do nOI want to be grounded in the mediocrity of mere assembly operations, " he said .

Al though the world was entering a recessio n that would incvitably affa " Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir pUSIH.'tr ies arc located .. . new ~ervices and tr,ldl~ s spring up. " 4(\

Dr. Mahath ir conceded lhal Glrs, for exa mple, could he imported cheaper, bu t i n~ i 5t'ed lhc capacity to produce whid es was a necessary component of Malaysia's industrializa tion . Il l" was fnl5 tfilted that ma rly MalaYSians dId nOI shan.' his en thusiasm about building a great natio n and, worse, some did not ('ven bt'lieve it was po~si\)I('. l ie urged them to "overcOIII(, tile mental block which condem ns liS to being the produccrs of primary comm(xlities to

fuel til(' growth o f the industria li zed coumrie: park an economic take,ofr. Two cement plants, onl" tn Pcrak state and the otll('r o n I.

Highly pro t('C't ed at ho me and no t designed for s,Lle a broad, Proton pre-dictabl y flo pped . Exports accounted fo r o n ly about 10 per Cl'n t of prOdtK-t ion in the micl- 1990s, and d eclined lat er. Small numb(' rs o f vehicles we re s h ipped to Bangladesh and o th er Asian a nd Midd le Eastern co un tries with low e mission a nd safety sta nda rds. TIll'Y p roved more popular in Hritai n , where they requi red m ore t ha n 400 costly mod ifica tio ns to meet Brit ish standa rds .. l~ but co uld not escape the ir ~Iougy im age. Despite being given catchi er names later, suc h as Gen-2 and Savvy, t lw y a ppealed mostly to eldl.'r ly dr ivC'rs and car ren tal companies thilt were offered gent'rous Imy-bilck arra nge me nts.

Nonetheless, I' roton a ll p

reluctant to sell a major swkc or allow manage lil ent contro l to pa:.s Into th~ hands of foreIgners. Yel that seemed to be tile only ~\Tay to attract ..')1 rL'Ccssion and further burdened by the government's heavy industry coullnit-menlS, tIll' Mahathir administration in the early 1980s d rastica lly altered the country's development st rategy. It rOOucoo the government's role in the {'(onomy and gave a bigger stake once again to private business. To switch from state-spurred to private sector-It'd growth, Malaysia encouragL'(i fo rel):;n invcstml,'n t and adoptl'tl a policy of privatiZation, wh ich nr. Mahmhlr utlvelle(! in 1983. I'rlvati7 .. a ti0I1 was 1I0vel, as the worldwide wave that was 10 IX'Comc id('nt iflcd with Hritish Prime Minister Marga ret Thatcher ami U.S. Pr('sld(,'nt Ronald Reagan was just gett ing started . It was also rad ical, since It prom ised to Tl'Verse the method chosen by Dr. Mahathir'$ p red l'Cl'ssors in pursuing the NE" : crealing public ('lI terprises to redistribute wealth and ):;enerate jobs.

Trying to spelld its wily out o f reccssion, Ma laYSia had sunk in to ('l'OIl-omic malaise. Its expa nsiona ry fi scal policies, funded by heavy borrow-ing ,It home and abroad, led to serious budget ddicits and rapidly rising debt-M'rv!C(' ( hargl"S. Uetween 1970 and 1982, gu .... eTll ment cotlSumption and investlll('nt as a share of GOP had jumIX-'Ci almost 50 lX' r (('nt as the bureau-

\02 Mllllly~imi Mmwi('/c

Th('y bought offlCia l a:.~IS at d iscounted prices, obtained 50ft credit alld cnjoy(, promoll'd a:. Vision 2020. Alt hough Illost of the clemen ts were famil iar, drOlwn Irom existing plam and pro-grammes, I ht~ packag\.' ca ught the public Imagimlliorl and was the subject of numerous studies, seminars and ('onfl'rence:;. It would reqUire the country to grow at 7 per cent annually on avemge, from 1990 to 2020, doubli ng GOP ('very ten years. GOP woullllX' eight timt.'S larg('r in 2020 than in 1990, .101i Malaysi;ms would be fou r times richer in realwrms.

Dr. Mahalhir's Idea of a fu lly dcvelopcd nation went beyond the material. Ill' out lined nine "'central stratl'sic challcnges,N that must IX' met to achieve all-round and well-balanct.od development - politically, StK"lally. spirit ua lly,

p~ychologically and cullUrally, as "-ell ,IS economically. Hi!> single reference to the goal of "one BIII I.,{5(1 \f(f/tlysia H , usually translated as "Mala)'sian race'" or "Mal;J ys i:Jn pl-,ple", raist.od the hope for an ('nd evcntually to race-based pol-itics. Although Or. Mahathir probably meant nothing mor(' than a un ited Malaysian nation bound together by prosperity, non-Malays, especially, saw him as the leader most likely to narrow ethnic diwiions.

Although priva\i/..at io ll generated lots of buzz around the Mala ysian st(x:k ma rkel, it was the m()n~ dynamiC foreign-domina tl.'

104 MIl/(/ysillJl M.II'('fick

con trol. Whcn the Swiss foot! and drin k maker Nestle S.A. restructu red it s Malaysian operations in li ne wlt h the NEP, It was able to ret ain a 51 per ('{'n t stake, ratilt'r tl1an sell 7(J per (ent to local invest ors.

/!. raft o f other measures culminated in Dr. Mahat hir's announcemen t tltat the blllllipu tra equity requi retll('llts would be SUSIX'll(kd fo r ce rtain new foreign Inv{'stlllcnts and forei gn-owlled expan sions milde between 1 October 1986 and 31 D..::('('mi>t:r 1990, when the NEP was su ppo sed to end , Such investments committed in th at p('riod would no t be requi red to restructure thei r ('qu it y "at any t ime". Or. Maha thir's stand loo k courage, since there was no more sensi ti ve topic tha n the NEP. He simply tol d the Malays that d istri bu ting jobs was as imponanl as distributing e'[ ulty . "ObViously, if tht're is no growth th ere will be nothing to distribute," he said.

Anot h{'r near simuitanl'ous st ructural adjustment a wor ld away held pro-found implkalions for Malaysia . Worried by the st rength of Ihe dollar, the finance mi nisters of the five largl.."5t industri al {:oulltril'S, tlwn knowlI as the G-S, met at lhe I'la" .. a Hotel in New York ill 19R5 and agrced Oil concc rt ed

106 Mafaysilm MflVf'rick

would reverberate throughou t East Asia, dt.'vastating Malaysia, Indonesia and South Korea as wdl as Thailand.

Herd-like panic by curren cy tmders and inexperie nced fu nd managers based in London and New Yo rk, treating the region as o ne Instead of a scri('S of quite disti nct L'Conomles, created a contagio n tha t spre .. d rapidly. As in vestors abru ptly withdrew their fu nds. share and property market bubb les in Mal"ys ia hurst , 1It1(krm ining the cOllnt ry's heavily exposed banking system. Ilaving traded as high as I{M2.49] to USS I in April 1997, the ringgit crumbled to HM4 .S95 in January 1998, as the Maillysian author iti es abandoned its loose peg to iI dollar-domi nated basket of cu rrt'ncles. The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange'S market lapitalization plunged fro m RMB06.77 bill io n in 1996 10 RM :~7S.8 billion in 1997. The exchange's com-

po~ i te index, which stood at 1:t00 in February 1997, touched;1 low of 262 in September 1998.

Or. Mah~Hh ir's Vbioll 2020 was Imperiled as more than ItM30 billion nel in 1'0rHolio investments "l'd Mal"ysia in Ihe lasl nine mont hs of 1997, much man.' than net Intl ows ~I Tlce 1995.18 Elaborate symboh of tl1ened , Dr. Mahathir brandl'"d fon'lgn currency traders as "in ternational crimina ls~ led by American financier George Soras, a "morull ... wlth a lot of money ..... I1- lie accused the IMF of wanting to "subvert~ Malaysia's economy after an IMF official sUgJ;csted the government go easy 011 its giant infrastructure projects. The more he insin ualed a Western conspiracy to sabotage Southeast "sia, hinted at a Jewish plot against Muslim MalaYSia and r .. ik-d aga inst ~an illternational dictatorship of manipulators", the fastl'r capi t .. , depa ned Malaysia :lIld neigh bouring c(llUltril.'s. lIi~ rC'marks "continued to undermine con fi clellCl.' and to exacerbate the situation until he was finally reined in by ollll'r govC'rnment leclders in the region", and no doubt by solile of his own adv isers.K~

Ano ther aggravating factor was the perCeption that Or. Mahathir ami Daj m had ta ken ovC' r el"Onomic policy ma king from Fina n(C' Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who had endeared himself over the years to the interna tional fina ncial commu nity."" Dillm reappeared on the scent' in laic 1997, being namlxi ex('CuUVl' d irector of the N .. tional Economic Action Council , chairc

Malaysia 's lower cxposur{' to private bank IX>Howings, serious though It was, meant It die! not haw.' to ru n to the IMF for emergency credit facllitil'S, a hu miliation 'Iuffcred hy'l hailand, in(\on('sia and Sout h Korea. A typica l IMF packilge, which irwolvl'd submitting to defla t ionary "conditio nalitil'S", would have crippled Dr. Mahathir's gra nd plans. Still. Malaysia had to contend with an increa!'>ingly sh rill internal iona l clamour for fl.'fo rm, Including trans-parem'y, go

110 M(I'I'phlII Millwiclr.

Or. Mahathir." Dai m's protege .. came under immed la((> fmancia l pressure, just as d id thoS(' owing allegia nce to Anwar Ibrahi m when he was S, ad ministrators, ma nagers and clerks.'~

11 2 Mlllilysitw M,11'N1c1;

With the high-flyI ng Mal,lY c hampions chosen for privalized proil"pulation in 1981, Malays beca me a clear and growing malority, without the need to be grouP('d among bumiputras to achieve nalional majority sta tus.)()

1 J 4 MCI!IIy:.iulI MclV('r ick

9 Cilrotyn Iiollg. "Muslims first , Mal~yslan ~ St~ond". Sim iis Time~ . 21 Aug ust 2006.

10 Khoo 1100 Td k. I'''md()u.~ o{ ,'>fa/ml ilifislll; All IlIldlt Conw. IllSt Served': I'rl\latizatiun Under M~hath ir", in Ikfflioll~, p. 283, citing Radin SQc:narno At Iial and hiinal Mnam YuwL 1'w I;xpl'ri("ncc of Malaysl:' ~, in "1'rl\l'lti1.d 27 Mav 20(6).

16 intervll'w with Mabathir Mohamad, 20 March 2007. 19 Greg Felkcr, -Mahalhlr and the l'o litiC'S of f .. ;onom ll' Policy in Mal(IYSi ,' '', in

Hff', cliOl.s. p. 2M . 20 In tervle .... with Mahat hi r Mohamad. 20 March 201)7, 2 1 IHIC'rv l{'w .... lt h D .. lm Z:llnmldin, 18 October 2007. 22 IHtcr\llcw wit h M .. halhir Moh:'mad, 14 August 2007. 2:i Chl'Ong Mi Sui and Ad ilmh Amin , /Jelim; '11/1' ,\f(m Iff/lind II", C"i.~ II/(1 (f'etaling

Jaya: f':,1 sagil", Nt"" IIi/mll/tim",/;sl, No. 195 (May 1989),

PI' 14-15. 5 1 Anw;n Ibrahim. spcilking \0 lournalists In Slng.lllon', 2 1 May 2008. 52 !.I:slk 1.o]X"7., "Mihllbish i S lls Proton Sh'!rl's", ,\lVSI, 9 March 2Q04. 5.1 Raphaell'ura, "Mala),s la Stilt Wil l Cut Gowrnmen l Role", A U'SI. 30 August

19R3. 54 Ibili. 55 "Tcngku RaLall'igh Respond~ to Dr Mahathl r's AIII~):a t ions aga iml lI im", Alirl'"

MIlIIII/ly, 1994: 11 , p. ]6. 56 ZahLuddin Matdln, Tlw Olln'r SiII(' Ilf'Malw/hir (Kuala I.umpur. U1\ISill1 I'lIhlk':ttions

&. DIStributors Sti ll . nhd ., 1994), Pl'. 6-7. S7 \.orrain!.' Carl(JS Salaz;lr, - 'nlSl Come, Hf"t Sl'm.-d': Privoltizalion Unrvl'(!': Privatization Under Mahathir"',

p.288. 6S A~('nc.l: FranCl' I re~se, Reu te rs. " KL Spt"111 54 .lIb on l;'ailOIlt.~ o r Companies in

I'a!il 5 Years~ . 66 Ilan k N('oMa Mal"ysla.

67 Edmund Tl' KtW Il Y('W, I'-rulll '/W,oI WUfh/ lu fi'~ I: nle SiIlS,lpor, ~wry: 1965-2()(X) (S lns ;rpore

Tl ml's Media I'll'. Ud" 20(0). p. 289. 72 jallam lI.amesh, " /-.I;lh;I l hlr) Mautra ". Ilidill 10.Iuy (m t ilt No'l. 2 1 May 2001

"'

l'rcciou~ mOIllCIIU: M;J hathlr adhcT('(1 \0 a rigid rOut1rIC 10 R('t the IILnst out Or ('3eh d ay. Ill' us...'tI hIs defea t In the' 1969 dl'CtiOIl to work on \everal Ixxlks while pr3('-

!l~illg IIwdl ('"inc, rcadln~ hetw('('n p atll'n\.s to s;tV{' lime. Svmu: I'rrdana l.ca."'r~hlp F'ouml U"n

119

Dcrt touch: [)ulerous, Milhathir cnioYl"iJ (MIX-nt TY. wood turnlll~ and m{'lalwork, lTlilking boats, wrought Iron lamps

l Z0

1\ vis l(lu: Mr.halhir's uvt'fwhelmlnS prlorily was to tu rn Malaysia Ill to a lIuxicrn, illlt'rrhltioll

122

Fa miliar face: Malaysian 'tlpporh:"" prorno ll'd ,I Mahathi r p('r~ona illy (ull. Inst itutes o f higher learning were urgt'd !O In lrodUCl' a cou rse Oil h h thoughlS, a ttempt!; weu' made 10 nominate him fo r ... NO/x'l l'rlzc, and he accepted an award as Man of the Millenn ium.

IZJ

nil parad(': Mahal hir in\pecll-d \ I,. lavsI3n lroop~ at tht' ""Ilona I "h)rwmt'n! in ,",ualil Lumpur on Warriors DOlt", .II july ZO()2. As a backbencher, hl' opposed tht' presence of for' ign ((\I C

5 A Volatile Mix of Business and Politics

lJefore Dr. Mahathir lx'Came president of UMNQ, Ih(' Il

UMNO's strategic role in the distri bution of pa tronag(' contrinul('d to til(' severe factionalism that oonvulsed the party in Of- Mahathi r's lime. In former finance minister Tengku Ra 7..a lc igh Hamzah's challenge 10 Or. Mahathir's leadership in 1987, the party d issiden ts d irected much of their ire al Oalm, who was accused of Stri pping UMNO for personal gain. 1k.'Causc of the way he ml"ed hi s private investmen ts with .~ t ate and party business, it would be il r{'Cu Trlng theme for as long as ])ai111 Tl'maim.xI as party treasurer. Mter he quit In 200 1, Significant sections ()f UMNO were convinced he had pockeled bil lions that belonged to the party. Daim denied it, as did Dr. Mahathir, the only other person with acccss to the books, who then took over as tre:tsurer for two years. Whl'n hl' stcPI)('d down in 2003, Dr. Mahathir handed hh succt'Ssnr, Abdullah Badawi, thl' prime ministership and UMNO a,>set~ of RM 1.4 billion, in property, shares and cash.J

I\ lthough the fo rm differs, lin k!) between politics and bUSiness arc wide-spread and growing in almost all East Asian coun tries. I In Jal)an, maior COT-flora tions fund particular f:Ktio ns within the ru ling UbNal DCnJocrat il'

Part y .~ Thaksin Sh inawlll ra, who I)('came prime mi n ister of Th ailand in 2001, brough t with hi m representatives of some 15 malor business group-ings who were able to seil." con t rol of the slate and contrive bUSi ness-fr iendly policies.6 Under Dr. Mahat hir and Oai m, MalaysIa fo llowl'd the example set by Chiang Kaish"k's Nationalist Pa rty, which ruled Taiwa n for 55 years until 2000 - and returned to I)()\'\'er in 2008 - In taking direct or indirect control over a vast array of corporate assets.

Th eir enterprise was light years removed from UMNO's early days, aft er Its formati on in 1946. when founding members usl'{l thei r own money to fund part y activit ies. So tight was the budge t in 1954 that Tu nk u Abd ul Ra hman, as pres ident of UMNO and rcprest'nting the Alllilllce, had to share a bl'd wi th a member of his delegation when they visited London to d iscuss pre-independence constit utfona l arrangements with the Urlli sh. ; Th e Tu nku reca lled that in thos...' days he drove and cle:tIled his OW II C:IT because he cou ld not afford a dr