Datuk Seri Mahathir bin Mohamad
Datuk Seri Mahathir bin Mohamad is a prominent Malaysian politician, recognized for his significant influence in the country's political landscape from the late twentieth century into the twenty-first century. He served as Malaysia's prime minister twice, first from 1981 to 2003 and then again from 2018 to 2020. His leadership was marked by substantial economic growth and modernization, which helped establish Malaysia as a key player in Southeast Asia. However, his tenure also attracted criticism for authoritarian governance and controversial policies, particularly regarding ethnic relations and political dissent.
Born on July 10, 1925, in Alor Setar, Kedah, Mahathir was educated in medicine and became politically active early in his career, advocating for Malay rights. His rise in politics saw him tackling issues of economic disparity and promoting affirmative action for Malays, which he believed would rectify historical injustices. Despite achieving notable successes in infrastructure and educational reforms, Mahathir faced significant challenges, including public protests and accusations of political repression, particularly during the 1998 dismissal of his deputy, Anwar Ibrahim.
Mahathir's later years were marked by a return to politics through the Malaysian United Indigenous Party and the opposition coalition in 2018, culminating in a historic election victory. Despite his accomplishments, he remains a polarizing figure, often eliciting strong reactions both domestically and internationally, particularly due to his outspoken views and some ongoing controversies related to governance and ethics.
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Datuk Seri Mahathir bin Mohamad
Prime minister of Malaysia
- Born: December 20, 1925
- Place of Birth: Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaya (now in Malaysia)
Mahathir bin Mohamad established himself as a key figure in Malaysian politics throughout the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. As prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003, he helped promote spectacular economic development and social improvements that earned the country a reputation as one of Southeast Asia’s great national success stories, although he also drew criticism for authoritarian policies and other controversial actions. He again served as prime minister from 2018 to 2020.
Early Life
Mahathir bin Mohamad was born on July 10, 1925, in Alor Setar, in the Kedah state of Malaya, which was then under British colonial rule. His father, an educator, was of Indian descent, and his mother was Malay. Like many Malaysians, his family endured hardship during World War II with the Japanese occupation of their country. Mahathir attended Sultan Abdul Hamid College after completing his primary and secondary education, and he went on to medical school in Singapore. His extracurricular activities included editing a student magazine and serving as president of the Muslim Society at King Edward VII Medical College.
Mahathir was also politically active as a student. He joined the Anti-Malayan Union Campaign in 1945 and the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) in 1946. He soon developed a reputation as a strong advocate of Malay rights. After he received his medical degree in 1953, he joined the Malayan medical service.
In 1956, Mahathir married former medical-school classmate Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali. The couple had seven children. In 1957, Mahathir resigned his government post to start a private medical practice, which soon flourished in his hometown of Alor Setar.
Life’s Work
Mahathir first entered active political life in 1964, winning a seat as member of parliament for south Kota Setar. He was subsequently appointed to the UMNO supreme council and served as chair of the higher education council. Mahathir lost his seat in the 1969 elections, however, after he publicly denied the need for Chinese votes in a country where the ethnic Malays majority exists alongside a large and active Chinese minority and a smaller Indian community.
Race riots broke out in Malaysia in 1969, leading Mahathir to openly criticize the government’s policies. As a result, he lost his party membership. He then wrote a controversial book, The Malay Dilemma (1970), in which he conducted an analysis of the problems faced by his people. He argued that Malays, though indigenous to the country, were victimized by the Chinese and the British during the colonial years because of their tolerance and passivity. He believed this cultural domination could be corrected by a type of national affirmative action program, in which Malays would be able to peacefully advance in the economic and political realms. The book was banned by the government, leading Mahathir away from politics until 1972, the year he was readmitted to UMNO. His ideas did not fade, however; they later formed the basis of his work as prime minister of Malaysia.
Mahathir was appointed a senator in 1973, reelected to parliament in 1974, and appointed minister of education. His rise to prominence within UMNO included his vice presidency in 1975 and his role as deputy president in 1976. In 1978 he was appointed the country’s deputy prime minister and minister of trade and industry. Three years later, after Prime Minister Tun Hussein Onn resigned for health reasons, Mahathir became Malaysia’s fourth prime minister and the first of nonroyal background. He took office on July 16, 1981, at the age of fifty-six.
As prime minister, Mahathir pursued a number of simultaneous strategies to improve his country’s economy. The Chinese minority, constituting about 35 percent of the population, owned many of the enterprises and much of the wealth in Malaysia. To correct this imbalance, Mahathir expanded the access of lower-income Malay students to higher education, forcing many more highly qualified Chinese and Indian students to seek university education abroad. With government-sponsored scholarships for Malay education at foreign universities as well, the country saw an increasingly well-educated population of young Malaysian professionals. Mahathir also called for improvement of science and mathematics skills, as well as broader literacy in the Malay language for all Malaysians.
Similarly, Mahathir worked to ensure that business enterprises reflected Malay participation. Many Malay-owned businesses began to succeed with government subsidies. However, Mahathir also promoted the idea of private enterprise and foreign investment. He instituted tax reforms and tariff reductions to promote trade, and he developed key industries within Malaysia, including the production of a national automobile called the Proton Saga. He emphasized ties with Asian powers, reduced dependence on the United Kingdom, and economic cooperation with other Southeast Asian nations and various multinational corporations (including Motorola). These policies promoted spectacular economic growth during the late 1980s and into the late 1990s, as Malaysia averaged above 10 percent growth per year; standards of living skyrocketed during this period as well. Mahathir also initiated major infrastructure projects such as expressways, high-technology centers, and port and airport development.
Under the political stability of Mahathir’s leadership, Malaysia emerged as one of Southeast Asia’s economic powerhouses. The Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s interrupted this spectacular growth, but Mahathir rejected an International Monetary Fund recovery plan. The Malaysian economy weathered the storm about as well as any other in the region, and a degree of economic stability was restored in subsequent years.
Mahathir’s outspoken and firm style of leadership produced criticism both at home and abroad, however, with some observers accusing him of authoritarian tendencies. A staunch Malayasian nationalist, he frequently attacked the legacy of British colonialism and criticized Western governments, including Australia and the United States (which nevertheless remained Malaysia’s largest trade partner during Mahathir’s tenure). Mahathir was not shy about attacking his domestic opponents either. He tolerated a degree of dissent and opposition, but he checked major threats to his authority and to Malaysia’s political stability, as in the arrest and detainment of political opponents in 1987 during a looming threat of ethnic instability. That crackdown indicated his willingness to restrict rights of political expression, freedom of the press, and judicial independence. Another notable incident came in 1998, when Mahathir dismissed his deputy prime minister and onetime protégé, a rising star in Malaysian politics named Anwar bin Ibrahim, and had him imprisoned on charges of sodomy. The move triggered major protests in the country, as well as international condemnation, but Mahathir effectively suppressed the reform movement.
Mahathir faced elections five times as head of the multiparty political alliance known as the Barisan Nasional. With each successive election, his government enjoyed fewer seats in parliament, indicating a certain erosion of his support over time. Increasing in strength was the opposition Pan Malaysia Islamic Party (PAS), and its opposition alliance, the Barisan Alternatif. During his fifth term as prime minister, Mahathir announced his resignation in 2003. He was succeeded by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who announced that he would continue to pursue Mahathir’s pro-growth policies. Following his retirement, Mahathir was named grand commander of the Order of the Defender of the Realm, a prestigious federal honor.
In retirement, Mahathir remained a prominent figure and was often critical of his successor’s policies, leading to tensions within UMNO. He left the party after the 2008 elections, in which the UMNO-led coalition lost its long-held two-thirds legislative majority. He rejoined the following year, but became a vocal opponent of new UMNO leader and prime minister Najib Razak. Mahathir was especially critical as a massive corruption scandal emerged around the 1Malaysia Development Berhard (1MBD) sovereign wealth fund, and called for Najib's resignation. In 2016 Mahathir left the UMNO again in protest, co-founding the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia; PPBM or BERSATU) and eventually officially aligning with the opposition Pakatan Harapan coalition, for which he became chair.
In January 2018 Mahathir declared his candidacy for prime minister in that year's general election. He notably pledged that if elected he would pardon his former rival Anwar and allow him to take power after two years. In what was widely viewed as a shocking upset, Mahathir and Pakatan Harapan won the election by a narrow margin. At age ninety-two, Mahathir took office for a second stint as prime minister that May. He did pardon Anwar as promised, although their alliance was fraught with tension. Disputes about the planned handoff of power contributed to a political crisis in the Malaysian government beginning in early 2020, which led to Mahathir's resignation that February. He was appointed to continue as interim prime minister while various factions continued to negotiate the crisis, but officially left office after Muhyiddin Yassin was chosen as prime minister later that month.
Mahathir remained politically active into the 2020s. After stepping down as prime minister he formed another new political party, the Homeland Fighters Party (PEJUANG), and remained critical of the Malaysian government. In 2022, Mahathir lost his parliamentary seat, his first ballot defeat in more than fifty years. He nevertheless continued to earn attention as a prominent voice in the country and used his influence to support various political parties and causes. He also remained controversial, drawing criticism for inflammatory ethnic comments and also facing an investigation for potential corruption. In 2024, Mahathir and two of his sons were investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
Significance
Across his many decades of political involvement, Mahathir became one of the most influential figures in Southeast Asia. He is considered a key engineer of Malaysia’s rapid economic development and modernization in the late twentieth century. Once a nation of farmers that heavily relied on its tin and rubber resources, the country emerged under his leadership as a newly industrialized state, with economic and social improvements putting it on a par with many developed countries. Mahathir’s long tenure as prime minister also brought significant political stability to Malaysia. He received many awards and honors throughout his career, including recognition as one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in 2019.
However, Mahathir also frequently attracted controversy, both at home and abroad. Opponents regularly accused him of corruption, cronyism, and authoritarianism. His brusque comments and confrontational foreign policy, motivated by his strong sense of Malay nationalism and Islamic identity, often complicated relations with other countries. Even as his political platform evolved over the years, he remained a polarizing figure.
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