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

persecution, Dr. Mahathir objected to any concessions. He cracked down hard again on his political opponents, particularly PAS and Keadilan, prosecuting and jailing several leaders and restricting their attempts to mobilize. The measures included withdrawing petroleum royalty payments, amounting to more than RM800 million a year, from opposition-held Trengganu state, even though they were legally guaranteed. Dr. Mahathir was able to win stronger support from non-Malays worried about Islamic extremism after the "September 11" terrorist attacks in the United States. As prime minister, he was secure.

Yet UMNO leaders and followers alike knew in their hearts that only Dr. Mahathir's departure would assuage Malay anger, as much of it was directed at him personally. Mindful of Anwar's fate, though, nobody who hoped for a future in the party was about to ask him to go. What they really needed was a Dr. Mahathir of three decades earlier, the one who dared speak bluntly to Tunku Abdul Rahman, to accept responsibility for the 1999 debacle and quit. Since acquiescing under pressure, even if it was unspoken, was anathema to Dr. Mahathir, party insiders tended to agree with hostile Internet analysts, who predicted he would die with his boots on. Anwar supporters began deriding him as "prime minister for life".

Dr. Mahathir shattered the irresolution in his closing address to the UMNO General Assembly in June 2002, abruptly departing from his text to say he was resigning "from UMNO and all positions in the National Front". As he broke into sobs, supporters mobbed him at the podium, some of them also in tears, imploring him to remain — all live on TV. Dr. Mahathir was taken to a back room, and his deputy, Abdullah Badawi, appeared after an hour to say he had been persuaded to stay on. Later, it was announced that he would retire at the end of October 2003.

For 16 months Dr. Mahathir stayed on in the position he had vowed to avoid, as a lame duck prime minister, making arrangements so that Malaysia would be run for the foreseeable future by his anointed leaders. He ensured that Abdullah faced no contest in UMNO elections before he became prime minister. Abdullah, in fact, was the first deputy president never elected to the post by the party, though he was "approved" under an arrangement that saw no challenge to the president or his deputy. Dr. Mahathir also extracted a public promise from the party's three vice presidents that they would accept Abdullah's future choice for deputy premier, and support that person unopposed in party elections. Dr. Mahathir made known his preference for Najib Razak as deputy, a choice confirmed by Abdullah in due course.

As promised, Dr. Mahathir stepped down on 31 October 2003 in an atmosphere of near disbelief that his era was finally ending. By voluntarily surrendering power, he once more confounded his critics. While Dr. Mahathir did not retain any official government or party office, he said he would play an active role as an "ordinary" UMNO member, as if a person with his record could ever be considered ordinary. Rather, it was the new leadership that appeared less than life size. Recall that Abdullah was once a member of the Tengku Razaleigh-Musa Team B, and Najib had belonged to Anwar's Vision Team. "That...must make one wonder", observed political scientist Khoo Boo Teik, "if the going gets rough, whether history will repeat itself as tragedy or farce".[90] As it happened, it was a bit of both.

Notes

Clive S. Kessler, "The Mark of the Man: Mahathir's Malaysia after Dr. Mahathir", in Bridget Welsh, ed., Reflections: The Mahathir Years (Washington: Southeast Asia Studies Program, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, 2004), p. 16.

In-Won Hwang, "Malaysia's 'Presidential Premier': Explaining Mahathir's Dominance", in Reflections, p. 67.

Frank-Jurgen Richter and Thang D. Nguyen, eds, The Malaysian Journey: Progress in Diversity (Singapore: Times Editions-Marshall Cavendish, 2004), p. x.

Interview with Musa Hitam, 3 January 2007.

Rehman Rashid, A Malaysian Journey (Petaling Jaya: Rehman Rashid, 1993), pp. 172-173.

Eddin Khoo and Jason Tan, "Transitional Times", Off the Edge, November 2005, p.23.

Zainuddin Maidin, The Other Side of Mahathir (Kuala Lumpur: Utusan Publications & Distributors Sdn. Bhd., 1994), pp. 224-225.

Rehman Rashid, A Malaysian Journey, pp. 171-172.

John Berthelsen, "Malaysian Prime Minister Invents an 'Islamic Toilet'", Asian Wall Street Journal, 18 October 1984.

Email correspondence with Mahathir Mohamad, 25 June 2008.

Ibid.

Interview with Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, 17 January 2008.

Interview with Daim Zainuddin, 18 October 2007.

Musa Hitam, "We Were Followers", Far Eastern Economic Review, 9 October 2003, http://www.feer.com/articles/2003/0310_09/p024region.html (accessed 19 January 2006).

V.G. Kulkarni, S. Jayasankaran and Murray Hiebert, "Dr. Feelgood", Far Eastern Economic Review, 24 October 1996, p. 18.

Interview with Mahathir Mohamad, 14 August 2007.

"Mahathir on Race, the West and His Successor", Time Asia, 9 December 1996, http://www.time.com/time/asia/2003/mahathir/mahathir961209_intvu.html (accessed 27 January 2006).

Interview with Mahathir Mohamad, 20 March 2007.

Ahmad Mustapha Hassan, The Unmaking of Malaysia: Insider's Reminiscences of UMNO, Razak and Mahathir (Petaling Jaya: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre, 2007), p. 65.

John Funston, "Political Careers of Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim: Parallel, Intersecting and Conflicting Lives", IKMAS Working Papers (Institute of Malaysian and International Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia), no. 15 July 1998): i-iv, 1-32.

Interview with Mahathir Mohamad, 31 March 2008.

Mahathir Mohamad, Reflections on Asia (Subang Jaya: Pelanduk Publications (M) Sdn. Bhd., 2002), p. 113.

Narayana N.R. Murthy, "A Hands-On Leader", Far Eastern Economic Review, 9 October 2003, http://www.feer.com/articles/2003/0310_09/p024region.html (accessed 19 January 2006).

Interview with Musa Hitam, 1 April 2008.

Interview with Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, 17 January 2008.

Robin Adshead, Mahathir of Malaysia: Statesman and Leader (London: Hibiscus Publishing Company, 1989), p. 113.

Cheong Mei Sui and Adibah Amin, Daim: The Man Behind the Enigma (Petaling Jaya: Pelanduk Publications (M) Sdn. Bhd., 1995), p. 140.

Ibid., pp. 140-141.

Interview with Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, 17 January 2008.

Mahathir B. Mohamad, "Problems of Democratic Nation-Building in Malaysia", Solidarity (Philippines), October 1971.

Interview with Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, 29 May 2007.

Interview with Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, 21 March 2007.

Cheong Mei Sui and Adibah Amin, Daim: The Man Behind the Enigma, (Petaling Jaya: Pelanduk Publications (M) Sdn. Bhd., 1995), p. 30.

Interview with Tengku Razaleigh