Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times, Barry Wain [best mystery novels of all time .txt] 📗

or inform a balanced judgment of his record. While he spoke freely, he proved incapable of the candour and reflection that might have illuminated the controversies that defined his tenure. Showing no sign of mellowing, he admitted to few errors, other than trusting people who subsequently let him down. As in the past, he professed no interest in his "legacy", a comment that, like some of what else he said, could not be taken at face value. Dr. Mahathir was obsessed with the fate of Malaysia, and what he left behind was what he had worked for most of his adult life. As Abdullah deviated from Dr. Mahathir's platform, the former prime minister turned on him with a fury that would be assuaged only by Abdullah's resignation or defeat.

Like his heroes, Dr. Mahathir sought change on an historical scale. He admired Peter the Great of Russia, Japan's Meiji Emperor and Turkey's Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, as well as President Park Chung Hee of South Korea and China's Deng Xiaoping, not to mention "my greatest model", the Prophet Muhammad. The common thread was that that they brought progress and enlightenment to their backward communities. As Dr. Mahathir said, "These are people who changed, changed the community in which they lived, radically changed and literally dragged them into a new age."[4]

Emotionally, Dr. Mahathir belonged to the batch of Third World leaders who made their mark in the immediate post-independence period: Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Indonesia's Sukarno. Fiery nationalists who struggled for independence in the 1950s and 60s, they generally turned their backs on the West as they found like-minded allies in regional and international bodies they helped inspire, such as the Organization of African Unity in the case of Nkrumah and Nyerere, and the Non-Aligned Movement for Nasser and Sukarno. And, as they harshly denounced and sought to eliminate colonialism, they adopted variants of socialism, which eventually ruined their economies.

While Dr. Mahathir came of age politically when this group was at the height of its influence in developing-world politics, he achieved power in a different era. Dr. Mahathir's anti-West rhetoric in the 1980s and 90s, though reminiscent of the first generation's, was accompanied by a diametrically opposite view of economics. Although a strident nationalist, he was pragmatic and favoured the market system that had brought prosperity to the industrialized nations. Many of his criticisms of the West, even when delivered from a Non-Aligned Movement platform, were directed at the barriers preventing developing countries such as Malaysia from moving up the food chain and graduating to the First World. Like neighbours Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore and Indonesia's Suharto, Dr. Mahathir integrated his country deeply with the Western economies and achieved an enviable development record.

At the same time, Dr. Mahathir joined a lengthy list of regional leaders who practiced authoritarianism, including not only Lee and Suharto but also Sukarno, Thailand's Sarit Thanarat, Thanom Kittikachorn and Praphas Charusathien, Myanmar's Ne Win, Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and Cambodia's Prince Norodom Sihanouk and Hun Sen. Among the Southeast Asian leaders who escaped the socialist trap and gave themselves a chance of economic advancement in return for the political restrictions and stability they imposed, Dr. Mahathir was one of the most successful and enlightened. Only Lee Kuan Yew and his successor as prime minister of Singapore, Goh Chok Tong, clearly outperformed him.

Dr. Mahathir's approach, however, is unlikely to be replicated, either in Malaysia or elsewhere in the region. In many ways he was sui generis, a forceful, quirky outsider who happened along and possessed the attributes to capture the political system at a time when he could get away with it. Apart from the slim prospect of a similar personality appearing again anytime soon, Southeast Asian societies have become more complex as they have modernized and matured. In the age of the Internet, none of the leading Southeast Asian countries is likely to allow completely free rein to a leader given to arbitrariness, repression and severe lapses in governance.

For better and worse, Dr. Mahathir had a profound impact on Malaysia. When he retired, more than half the population had known no other national leader and many people, detractors included, simply could not imagine life without him. He was dominant for so long that nearly every aspect of the country reflected his preference or personality. Dr. Mahathir's influence was most visible in the thrusting Kuala Lumpur skyline, and in the impressive infrastructure that drew foreign investors in large numbers and created one of the world's top 20 trading nations. It was also present in a better educated, more affluent and mostly tolerant people, many of whom had plugged in with cell phones and satellite television and become global citizens.[5] But it permeated, too, the ranks of oppositionists and disaffected groups who often risked their livelihoods and liberty to disagree with him. "Dr. Mahathir changed not just the face but also the soul of Malaysia," observed sociologist Clive Kessler.[6]

In 2008, Malaysia faced greater political uncertainty than at any time since the racial riots that shook Kuala Lumpur nearly four decades earlier. Prime Minister Abdullah's National Front administration, punished in a general election in March for an ineffectual performance and broken promises, continued to sink ever lower in public esteem. UMNO's main coalition partners, the Malaysian Chinese Association, the Malaysian Indian Congress and Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, blamed the ruling party's "arrogance and excesses" for their defeats.7 Abdullah's attempts to reverse the erosion of UMNO's legitimacy, by dusting off his earlier promises of reform, encountered internal opposition and floundered, leaving his partners frustrated and helpless.

While Abdullah sought to deflect pressures to quit by announcing that he would hand over to Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2010, UMNO remained divided, semi-paralysed and in danger of fracturing. Persuaded that Abdullah could not halt the party's slide, some influential members wanted him out sooner. But Najib had his own problems that made him less than an ideal