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 cooperation 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
