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

the time Parliament reopened in early 1971, Razak had succeeded Tunku Abdul Rahman as prime minister and Malaysia's Constitution and the Sedition Act were amended to make it illegal to question "sensitive issues": citizenship, the special position of the Malays and natives of Sabah and Sarawak, the national language and the status of the sultans. Not even elected members of parliament could question them.

The Razak government's major response to the May 13 riots was a far-reaching affirmative action programme called the New Economic Policy (NEP), to last for 20 years from its introduction in 1971. Just as Dr. Mahathir advised, it pinpointed Malay deprivation as the underlying cause of the unrest and set national unity as the long-term goal. The two main objectives of the NEP were the eradication of poverty for all Malaysians, and the restructuring of society so that race was no longer identified with economic function. As no ethnic group was to feel a sense of deprivation and the Malays had to make significant gains, the NEP was predicated on strong and sustained overall economic growth.

According to the official target, Malays and other indigenous people would own and manage at least 30 per cent of the "total commercial and industrial activities in all categories and scales of operations". The government also stipulated that the employment pattern, "at all levels and in all sectors", must reflect the racial composition of the population.[29] The share of national corporate equity held by Malays and other native races was to increase from 2.4 per cent in 1970 to 30 per cent in 1990. In practice, the wide application of the 30 per cent quota was broadly in line with Dr. Mahathir's argument that equality required that "each race is represented in every strata of society, in every field of work, in proportion more or less to their percentage of the population".[30] Although he played no part in formulating the economic blueprint, Dr. Mahathir was godfather to the NEP and would always be strongly identified with it in the public mind.

With Tunku Abdul Rahman in retirement, the way was open for Razak to rehabilitate Dr. Mahathir, which he did by readmitting him to UMNO on 7 March 1972. A Malay-Ianguage newspaper cartoon depicting his return as Superman, descending from the skies to be met by all members of UMNO's Supreme Council, arms outstretched in welcome, irritated some of them who did not want him back.[31] Among those who agreed to his re-admission only reluctantly was a fellow physician, Ismail Abdul Rahman, the highly principled deputy prime minister and home affairs minister, who felt Dr. Mahathir had gone too far in his criticism of the Tunku.[32]

After such a tumultuous, decade-long prelude — and partly because of it — Dr. Mahathir's ascent was meteoric. He re-entered Parliament in 1973, appointed to the Senate by Kedah state, and was returned to the House of Representatives in a general election the following year. Immediately made a full minister, bypassing the normal progression from a deputy position, he served in a coalition government that had been broadened by Prime Minister Razak beyond the original Alliance to become the multi-party National Front. As PAS had renamed itself Parti Islam Se-Malaysia and joined the administration, Dr. Mahathir could not contest his old seat, but moved instead to another Kedah constituency, Kubang Pasu, where he was unopposed. Significantly, his portfolio was education, a particular interest of his and a post that gave him the opportunity to entrench his support among schoolteachers, then the most important group in UMNO.[33] It was seen as a logical stepping stone to higher office. Dr. Mahathir formally abandoned medicine after 20 years of practice and relocated his family from Alor Star to Kuala Lumpur.

In UMNO, Dr. Mahathir was immediately embroiled in a vicious factional fight that convulsed the party in the aftermath of Tunku Abdul Rahman's induced retirement. While Dr. Mahathir's allies, the "development-oriented reformists", or leftists, aligned with Razak, were in control, the Tunku's "independence fighters", or conservatives, were mounting a serious rearguard action.[34] Separated mainly by generation and ideology, the two factions often referred to each other in abusive terms: The Old Guard called some of Razak's inner circle "communists", while the Young Turks reciprocated by referring to Tunku's men as "American stooges".[35]

Dr. Mahathir was elected to the UMNO Supreme Council with the highest vote only months after being accepted back into the party in 1972, though he failed in a simultaneous bid for the vice presidency. But with the decision to hold future UMNO elections triennially rather than annually, the real test of factional strength would come in 1975, and the outcome would shape Malaysian politics for a generation or more. Three years of intense politicking was heightened by the unexpected death in 1973, from a heart attack, of Deputy Prime Minister Ismail. Razak appointed Hussein Onn, his brother-in-law, to fill the vacancy, but it was generally understood that Hussein would be an interim deputy. Adding pressure was the fact that Razak himself was dying of leukemia, though only a few people knew that and they were sworn to secrecy. Diagnosed in 1969 and given four years at most to live, Razak was already on borrowed time. Ismail's death at 57 had robbed him of his logical successor as prime minister, and left him scrambling to assemble a future leadership for the country before he died.

As the UMNO General Assembly approached in 1975, Razak called in Abdullah Ahmad to discuss tactics for the election of three vice presidents. These posts were considered crucial, as one occupant before long would move up to deputy president and then party president, giving him the prime ministership. Abdullah, a former journalist, was a deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department and a member of UMNO's Supreme Council, who functioned as Razak's de facto political adviser, confidant and hatchet man. Razak was specific. Of the eight candidates, he wanted elected, in order: Abdul Ghafar Baba, minister for national and rural development, and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, chairman of