Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times Read online

  Malaysian Maverick

  Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times

  by

  Barry Wain

  Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore

  * * *

  Contents

  Foreword

  Part I - The Making of a Malay Champion

  1. Politicized by War and Peace

  2. An Early Introduction to Brutal Politics

  Part II - Prime Minister for Life, Almost

  3. From Outcast to Presidential Premier

  4. The Vision of a Modern Nation

  5. A Volatile Mix of Business and Politics

  6. Scandal, What Scandal?

  7. Big, Bigger, Bust

  8. An Uncrowned King

  9. The Perils of a Pragmatic Islam

  10. A Strident Voice for the Third World

  11. The Destruction of a Designated Heir

  Part III - Turmoil in Retirement

  12. A Bare-Knuckle Brawl Over One Man's Legacy

  13. A Place in History

  Photos

  * * *

  Foreword

  Mahathir Mohamad can be elusive. While he has been a public figure in Malaysia for half a century and well known abroad for almost as long, he has presented himself as a bundle of contradictions: a Malay champion, who was the Malays' fiercest critic and an ally of Chinese-Malaysian businessmen; a tireless campaigner against Western economic domination who assiduously courted American and European capitalists; a blunt, combative individual who extolled the virtues of consensual Asian values.

  Much, of course, can be explained by political expediency: Like all successful politicians, Dr. Mahathir compromised where necessary to meet the competing and shifting demands of politics. But he remains a complex character, "a series of personae", as Khoo Boo Teik put it in his 1995 study of the man and his ideology.[1] Critics and admirers, who loathe and love him with equal passion, are both correct sometimes. In the words of one sage who has known and observed Dr. Mahathir since his student days, he is "so likeable and worthy of respect at times and so utterly ruthless at others".[2]

  Unlike Khoo, I do not analyse Dr. Mahathir's performance within a theoretical framework. As a journalist, I tell his story from ground level, examining the interesting and significant events in his life and the impact they had on him and the country. I follow him from birth in 1925 in modest circumstances to his practice as a provincial doctor, from outcast first-term parliamentarian to Malaysia's longest serving prime minister and Third World spokesman, and from the heights of authoritarian power to the depths of political recrimination in retirement after 2003. I take a fresh look at the controversies that characterized his political career and examine what 22 years of strongman rule have meant for this former British territory.

  I first encountered Dr. Mahathir when I was posted to Kuala Lumpur from 1977 to 1979 as a staff correspondent for the Asian Wall Street Journal and he was deputy prime minister. He was outspoken and testy about negative publicity, especially after he switched from the education portfolio to trade and industry, responsible for attracting foreign investment. He remained ever ready to denounce critical foreign press reporting during his premiership. In the interests of disclosure, I should mention that I held managerial posts and responsibilities for the Journal's coverage of Malaysia from 1984 to 1992.

  Dr. Mahathir speaks for himself. As the author of dozens of books, studies and reports, the willing voice in hundreds of interviews, several thousand speeches and an almost endless stream of commentary, he has had his say on nearly every conceivable subject. His memoirs will follow when he is finally satisfied with the drafts and resists the temptation to rewrite them one more time.[3] I weigh his words against his record, relying heavily on reporting, by myself and others, supplemented by personal interviews.

  In an effort to fill the gaps, reconcile differences and illuminate the shadows, I interviewed Dr. Mahathir three times for the book. Two meetings took place in his city office on the 86th floor of the Petronas Twin Towers in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, and the other in his regular office at the Perdana Leadership Foundation at Putrajaya. Between the second and third interviews he had open-heart surgery and a follow-up operation for a serious infection in the wound. He also answered additional questions submitted by email. Similarly, his wife, Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, readily agreed to an interview and responded promptly to email queries. The two of their seven children I approached, Marina and Mukhriz Mahathir, also submitted to questioning.

  The fourth prime minister of Malaysia and the first commoner to hold the title, Dr. Mahathir in many ways was an outsider. A nationalist and modernizer, essentially pragmatic, he had little time for rules, customs and traditions that might obstruct his ambitious plans. Ever the maverick, he delighted in bucking the system and opting for the unconventional course, especially if told he could not, or should not. Even while exercising tight political control, Dr. Mahathir never embraced the Malaysian establishment, preferring to try and create a new social and political order more to his liking.

  Some aspects of Dr. Mahathir's early life hitherto have remained obscure, which might be considered surprising given how long he towered over Malaysia and projected himself internationally. Part of the explanation for the mystery is his presumed sensitivity to being the grandson of an Indian immigrant, which raised cultural barriers that fellow Malaysians have been reluctant to breach by questioning him directly. With me, Dr. Mahathir discussed his family freely and noted the influences that shaped his outlook and steered him into politics. Part I covers events on his way to becoming prime minister at the age of 56.

  Part II, the body of the book, is a thematic treatment of Dr. Mahathir's leadership of Malaysia. It opens with an account of how he defeated successive political challenges, and explores his vision, an all-consuming desire to turn Malaysia into a modern, industrialized nation commanding worldwide respect. Dr. Mahathir's decision to direct the ruling party into business in a major way, while the government practised affirmative action, changed the nature of the party and accelerated the spread of corruption. One manifestation was the eruption of successive financial scandals, massive by any standards, which nevertheless left Dr. Mahathir unfazed and unapologetic. To help ensure the numerically superior but economically lagging Malays shared national success, Dr. Mahathir re-interpreted Islam to cater for their material as well as spiritual needs. Because of its repercussions, his dismissal in 1998 of his deputy and heir apparent, Anwar Ibrahim, is accorded close and separate scrutiny. Other chapters examine Dr. Mahathir's "think big" philosophy, which prompted a public craze for setting all sorts of world records, his showdown with the nine royal households that constitute the Malaysian monarchy, and his emergence on the global stage as an advocate of developing countries and Islamic issues.

  Retiring at 78 after having ruled for almost as long as his three predecessors combined, Dr. Mahathir might have been expected to join the international lecture circuit and enjoy his mix of celebrity and notoriety. But, in a twist that was unexpected but entirely consistent with his unorthodox streak, he plunged back into the politics he had forsworn, as a savage and unrelenting critic of his handpicked successor, Abdullah Badawi. He contributed to efforts that forced Abdullah into retirement early in his second term. Within sight of his 84th birthday, Dr. Mahathir was still making his political presence felt. Part III assesses Dr. Mahathir's legacy and looks at his place in history.

  Researching this book gave me the opportunity to make contact with many Malaysians, quite a number of them old friends. Most were only too willing to help. It was an affirmation of the cheerful coope
ration and courtesy I have found throughout a long association with the country.

  Param Cumaraswamy was generous with his time in discussing the intersection of legal and political issues. Abdul Wahab Mohamed Osman rounded up an assortment of locals in Alor Star to relive the early Mahathir years. Abdullah Ahmad was a patient guide through the underside of UMNO politics in the 1960s and 70s. Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Rehman Rashid, Liew Chin Tong, Chandra Muzaffar, Chandran Jeshurun, Karpal Singh, Tan Siok Choo, Mustapa Kassim, Abdul Rahim Aziz and Austin Zecha assisted in other ways. I thank Steven Gan for providing the sourcing for a number of Malaysiakini reports, and Perdana Leadership Foundation, Malaysia's Information Department and Bernama for supplying photographs.

  Several scholars with expertise in Malaysian affairs rendered assistance. Greg Barton, Johan Saravanamuttu and Peter Searle read various sections and made helpful suggestions. John Funston's support was invaluable. He answered a string of questions and undertook a detailed critique that significantly improved the manuscript. For the foreign policy chapter, Marvin Ott plugged a sourcing gap and NUS Press made available in advance a book on Dr. Mahathir's foreign policy.[4]

  I am indebted to former colleagues at the Asian Wall Street Journal, renamed the Wall Street Journal Asia in 2005, for their support. As editor, John Bussey granted access to the paper's files, including memorable reports from Malaysia in the early 1980s that were not available online. Celine Fernandez in Kuala Lumpur and Judy Chan in Hong Kong acted as unpaid research assistants. Crucially, Raphael "Rocky" Pura, the paper's Kuala Lumpur-based veteran reporter and editor, some of whose compelling dispatches are reflected in this volume, provided running advice on both structure and content.

  At the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, the library staff were extremely helpful and ISEAS specialists generously shared their knowledge. Among them, Mustafa Izzuddin and R. Ramasamy assisted with translation, and Lee Hock Guan, Michael Montesano, Verghese Mathews, Ooi Kee Beng, Rod Severino and Ian Storey offered useful insights. The numerous individuals I interviewed over a period of two and a half years, including some of those mentioned above, are identified in the text and footnotes. While all these sources informed my understanding and were much appreciated, ultimately mine is very much an independent study, the product of observing Dr. Mahathir in action across more than 30 years.

  Barry Wain

  Singapore

  N.B.

  The protagonist's name, Mahathir bin Mohamad, which identifies him as Mahathir, son of Mohamad, is rendered Mahathir Mohamad. The "bin" is dropped in line with modern usage. Mahathir is pronounced ma-HAA-teer.

  Although Mahathir held various honorific titles, reflecting his rising status — datuk, datuk seri and tun — I have chosen to call him "Dr." Mahathir throughout, or at least after his graduation from medical school in 1953. As he told me long ago when discussing titles, "I earned that one."[5] For convenience, the only other persons accorded titles in the book, apart from his wife, also a doctor, are members of royalty.

  Although Malaysia has adopted a new way of spelling some place names in recent years — for example, Johor instead of Johore, Melaka for Malacca and Alor Setar rather than Alor Star — I have used the old style for consistency, since the book spans both periods.

  Malaysia's currency, the ringgit, formerly known as the Malaysian dollar, and before that the Straits dollar, was loosely pegged to an American dollar-dominated basket of currencies during much of the Mahathir era. The ringgit fluctuated between an annual average of RM2.3033 and RM2.8132 to US$1 between 1981 and 1997, before falling to RM4.5450 when the peg was abandoned during the 1997-98 Asian economic crisis.[6] The government fixed the rate at RM3.80 when introducing currency controls in September 1998.

  Notes

  Khoo Boo Teik, Paradoxes of Mahathirism: An Intellectual Biography of Mahathir Mohamad (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1995).

  Email correspondence with long-time acquaintance of Mahathir Mohamad, 2 September 2007.

  Dr. Mahathir fingered print-outs of the chapters of his unfinished memoirs in early 2008 and explained why he had been unable to complete the job in more than five years. "Because I write and then I re-read and correct again. Sometimes I discard what I have written and rewrite the whole chapter again...and then sometimes while re-reading I remember something which should be in...". Interview with Mahathir Mohamad, 31 March 2008.

  Kaminder Singh Dhillon, Malaysian Foreign Policy in the Mahathir Era (1981-2003): Dilemmas of Development (Singapore: NUS Press, 2009).

  Barry Wain, "Enter Dr. M, Reaching for His Gun", Asian Wall Street Journal, 6 June 1981.

  Bank Negara Malaysia's Monthly Statistical Bulletin, January 1998.

  * * *

  Part I

  The Making of a Malay Champion

  * * *

  (1)

  Politicized by War and Peace

  Alor Star, the capital of Kedah state, might have been a sleepy backwater in the early years of last century but the social distinctions were drawn as sharply as there as anywhere in colonial Malaya. Malay royalty and the aristocracy lived in relative splendour in the northern outskirts around the palace. Senior civil servants and the wealthy occupied fine homes closer to the centre. The rest shared the rest, with the poorest finding shelter on the other side of the Kedah River that bisected the town. Mahathir Mohamad was born south of the river.

  As Mahathir was to discover, inequality was not confined to owning a colonial house in the best neighbourhood. His father, founder of the government's first English-medium secondary school in Kedah and a passionate educationist, could not get his daughters into secondary school. Members of the elite were given priority, as they were in almost everything else, from university scholarships to coveted jobs in the Kedah civil service. Although Mahathir obtained the academic distinction that usually won a scholarship for someone with the right pedigree to study abroad and gain professional qualifications, none was forthcoming for him.

  British elitism and a Malay sense of hierarchy combined to let people know their place in Society. Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra, son of the Sultan of Kedah and the independent country's first prime minister, did better than most royals in socializing with fellow citizens, but he never forgot his regal origins. Explaining why he would not have known the young Mahathir, Tunku Abdul Rahman said, "He was a nobody. His father was a subordinate officer in Kedah. I did not mix with his father. We had a club in Kedah, a special club for civil servants, for royalty and so on. They had a subordinate club."[1]

  The discrimination Mahathir's family suffered because it lacked the necessary socio-economic background and connections was general, not personal. It said much about Mahathir's strength of character, and the family support he received, that he did not allow it to obstruct a successful career in medicine and politics. Indeed, it made him more determined to succeed, though memories of the inequities of the system permanently coloured his outlook.

  Where the establishment was concerned, Mahathir was a maverick, an "outsider" in the words of Zainuddin Maidin, a journalist-turned-politician and supporter in Kedah.[2] Mahathir challenged the rules and conventions, whenever they appeared to make no sense, or got in his way. He revelled in being a contrarian, doing what was popularly forbidden. To many others, Mahathir's youthful experience manifested itself as an inferiority complex that made him fight harder, shout louder, build bigger and remain supersensitive to any slight or criticism. "I prefer to say he has a big chip on his shoulder," commented Abdullah Ahmad, a long-time political ally.[3] Khalid Abdullah, an early business partner and friend for more than half a century, observed with a gentle laugh, "I think he has a little superiority complex." Khalid quoted an Arab proverb to explain Mahathir's mentality: "If you see me with one eye, I have no eyes to see you. If you see me with both eyes, I have all my eyes to see you."[4]

  Eyes wide open, Mahathir focused on politics early. He got hooked while he was still in school and never deviated from his desire to b
ecome a politician. Every step he took, including qualifying as a doctor, was meant to enhance his credentials for a political career. He entered the national political arena because he was unhappy with the state of the country and wanted to change it. Most of all, he set out to improve the status of fellow Malays, the country's predominant ethnic group who, despite their numerical superiority, lagged economically behind the Chinese. He would not become prime minister until the age of 56, after overcoming several serious political obstacles, two potentially fatal. But then he would cling to the post for more than 22 years, almost as long as his three predecessors combined, unceasingly trying to shape a modern nation in his own image.

  Although Mahathir was deeply embroiled in the contentious debates that preceded and followed Malaya's independence in 1957, he was not in the vanguard of the country's first-generation leaders. He was an early member of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), formed to oppose a specific British colonial arrangement perceived to weaken the position of Malays, which emerged as the country's premier political party. But UMNO initially was led by members drawn from the traditional aristocracy such as Abdul Rahman, the first prime minister, who was a tunku, or tengku, prince. He was followed by Abdul Razak Hussein and Hussein Onn, both of royal lineage, who became brothers-in-law when they married into the royal family in the southern state of Johore. Mahathir, decidedly a commoner, was an outspoken critic of UMNO policies under Tunku Abdul Rahman, whom he blamed for accepting passively the plight of the Malays.

  The youngest of nine children — a tenth had died at birth — Mahathir was born in the family home in Seberang Perak, a semi-rural slum in Alor Star, on 10 July 1925. His father, Mohamad Iskandar, a teacher, had been recruited from Penang by the Kedah state authorities to open a secondary school for the sons and daughters of the sultan and local elite. Left with three children after the death of his wife, he moved to Alor Star and married Mahathir's mother, Wan Tempawan Wan Hanafi, a local woman 14 years his junior, who also had been previously married. As indicated by the "Wan", she had links to state royalty, but too distant to provide any entree into aristocratic circles.[5] With six surviving children of their own, Mohamad and Wan Tempawan raised all nine kids.