ISL WEEK 8

Biography Report

Yang Amat Berbahagia Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad

4th Prime Minister of Malaysia

In office

16 July 1981 – 31 October 2003

Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad (Jawi: محمد بن pronounced; محضير

[maˈhaðɪr bɪn moˈhamad] is a Malaysian politician who was the fourth Prime

Minister of Malaysia. He held the post for 22 years from 1981 to 2003, making

him Malaysia's longest serving Prime Minister. His political career spanned

almost 40 years. Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad is a Malay name; the name

Mohamad is a patronymic, not a family name, and the person should be referred

to by the given name, Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad. Tun Dr. Mahathir bin

Mohamad was born in 10 July 1925 and raised in Alor Setar, Kedah. Mahathir

was a hard-working school student. With schools closed during theJapanese

occupation of Malaya in World War II, he went into small business, first selling

coffee and later pisang goreng (banana fritters) and other snacks. After the war,

he graduated from secondary school with high marks and enrolled to study

medicine at the King Edward VII College of Medicine in Singapore (now part

of National University of Singapore). In college he met his future wife, Siti

Hasmah Mohamad Ali, a fellow medical student. After Mahathir graduated, he

worked as a doctor in government service before marrying Siti Hasmah in 1956

and returning to Alor Setar the following year to set up his own practice. He was

the town's first Malay doctor, and a successful one.

Mahathir had been politically active since the end of the Japanese

occupation of Malaya, when he joined protests against the granting of citizenship

to non-Malays under the short-lived Malayan Union. While at college he

contributed to The Straits Times under the pseudonym "C.H.E. Det", and a

student journal, in which he fiercely promoted Malay rights, such as restoring

Malay as an official language. While practising as a doctor in Alor Setar, He

became active in the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) ;  by the time

of the first general election for the independent state of Malaya in 1959, he was

the chairman of the party in Kedah. Despite his prominence in UMNO, Mahathir

was not a candidate in the 1959 election, ruling himself out following a

disagreement with then Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. In the

following general election in 1964, he was elected as the federal parliamentarian

for the Alor Setar-based seat of Kota Setar Selatan.  In the 1969 election, he lost

his seat.  By the end of the year he had been expelled from UMNO.

When Tunku Abdul Rahman resigned, Tun Dr.Mahathir bin Mohamad re-

entered UMNO and parliament, and was promoted to the Cabinet. By 1976, he

had risen to Deputy Prime Minister, and in 1981 was sworn in as Prime Minister

after the resignation of his predecessor, Tun Hussein Onn. During Tun

Dr.Mahathir bin Mohamad's tenure as Prime Minister, Malaysia experienced

rapid modernisation and economic growth, and his government initiated a series

of bold infrastructure projects. Mahathir initiated a series of major infrastructure

projects in the 1990s. One of the largest was the Multimedia Super Corridor, an

area south of Kuala Lumpur, in the mould of Silicon Valley, designed to cater for

the information technology industry. However, the project failed to generate the

investment anticipated. Other Mahathir projects included the development

of Putrajaya as the home of Malaysia's public service, and bringing a Formula

One Grand Prix to Sepang. One of the most controversial developments was

the BakunDam in Sarawak. The ambitious hydro-electric project was intended to

carry electricity across the South China Sea to satisfy electricity demand in

peninsular Malaysia.

He was a dominant political figure, winning five consecutive general

elections and seeing off all of his rivals for the leadership of UMNO. However, his

accumulation of power came at the expense of the independence of the judiciary

and the traditional powers and privileges of Malaysia's royalty. He also deployed

the controversial Internal Security Act to detain activists, non-mainstream

religious figures, and political opponents including his sacked deputy, Anwar

Ibrahim. Tun Dr.Mahathir bin Mohamad's record of curbing civil liberties and his

antagonism to western diplomatic interests and economic policy made his

relationships with the likes of the US, Britain and Australia difficult. As Prime

Minister, he was an advocate of third-world development and a prominent

international activist for causes such as the anti-apartheid movement in South

Africa and the interests of Bosnians in the 1990s Balkans conflict. At UMNO's

general assembly in 2002, Mahathir announced that he would resign as Prime

Minister, only for supporters to rush to the stage and convince him tearfully to

remain. He subsequently fixed his retirement for October 2003, giving him time to

ensure an orderly and uncontroversial transition to his anointed successor,

Abdullah Badawi. Having spent over 22 years in office, Mahathir was the world's

longest-serving elected leader when he retired. He remains an active political

figure in his retirement, having become a strident critic of his handpicked

successor, Abdullah Badawi, and actively supporting Abdullah's replacement by

Najib Razak.