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

drive" of the immigrant Chinese, who had been encouraged by the British to settle in Singapore. Once the owners and rulers, Malays now were to be found only in the poorer quarters living in dilapidated attap and plank huts, "sometimes only a stone's throw from the palatial residences of Chinese millionaires". They worked as syces, tukang kebun, tambies — drivers, gardeners, office boys — and cooks. Most English schools were completely without Malay students. So unenviable was the position of the Malays in Singapore that "most of them have lost their self-respect and racial pride". If Malay interests were not safeguarded, there was no doubt what would happen: "...the prevailing condition in Singapore would invade the Peninsula".[33]

Malay under-representation in his college, where 630 of 700 students were non-Malay, reinforced the impression of their exclusion.[34] Against strong opposition, Mahathir argued for the retention of a 75 per cent quota in favour of Malays for government scholarships to the college.[35] While Mahathir did well in his medical studies, it worried him that other Malays, who numbered just seven of the intake of 75 students in his year, often struggled. Only four of them graduated as doctors, despite special coaching to which Mahathir contributed. One who had trouble with physics and chemistry and needed his help — she had not been able to study these subjects in her secondary school — was Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, the only female among the Malay students, who was from a respected family in Selangor state. Although Mahathir was shy and awkward in the presence of girls — meeting the opposite sex was a totally new experience for him — he soon became "possessive" and "jealous".[36] Dr. Mahathir, who graduated in 1953, married his first and only girlfriend in 1956, a union that was to last a lifetime.

Not surprisingly, Mahathir acquired a jaundiced view of the often unruly, poorly educated Chinese who jostled aggressively in the crossroads port. He knew from personal experience how the Malays were often brushed aside and their dignity flouted. He once asked a taxi driver to take him to the home of a woman friend, only to be delivered to the servants' quarters of the house.[37] Mahathir had a long memory, particularly when it came to insults and enemies. Invited to Singapore in 1978 by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew soon after becoming Malaysia's deputy prime minister, Dr. Mahathir did not try to hide his deep anti-Singapore feelings. He told his host that Singapore Chinese looked down upon the Malays.[38]

At a personal level, however, Mahathir had no trouble at all making friends with people of all ethnic backgrounds. In the Class of 47 — the students thoughtfully named it after their freshman year to include those who graduated late or dropped out — the bonds were especially warm and enduring. They had a deal that those who turned up for dull and dreary classes signed attendance for the absentees. "We shared our lecture notes and even our case write-ups in obstetrics," recalled Wong Hee Ong. "In all this, Mahathir was one of us."[39]

They held regular reunions, in Singapore or Malaysia, culminating in a 60th anniversary gathering in 2007, with Dr. Mahathir always making a supreme effort to attend. While he was prime minister, he would tell his bodyguards and minders to leave, exposing himself to the ragging of aging medicos reliving their youth, and dishing it out to them in return. At these intensely private, informal gatherings, Dr. Mahathir and Dr. Siti Hasmah, both considered to have good voices — hers somewhat better than his — were usually called upon for a duet. In 1997, Dr. Mahathir sang My Way solo, with lyrics written for the occasion by class members and featuring American investor George Soros, blamed by the Malaysian leader for aggravating the Asian economic crisis that year.[40]

Living away from home for the first time, Mahathir proved a true son of his father as he managed his time expertly. Socializing little beyond occasional visits to the cinema, he shunned campus politics, dismissing such activity as "playing games", and telling fellow students he preferred to participate in the real political drama unfolding on the Malay Peninsula.[41] Mahathir became president of the college Islamic Society, and edited and produced an issue of his medical school journal, the Cauldron. He continued writing articles regularly enough for the Straits Times and Sunday Times to help buy a motorcycle; Siti Hasmah rode pillion. His varied output, written in a "direct, didactic style", was a "remarkable accomplishment for a full-time student in a demanding discipline".[42] And it was appreciated, at least by the Straits Times. An editor called him to the paper's offices in Singapore and asked if he was interested in a job as a journalist. No, he was not.

Singapore gave birth to an urban myth, that Mahathir thought of himself as an Indian when he entered university. The story was retold in several gossipy versions, losing none of its appeal across the decades. Academics, diplomats and even a former cabinet colleague delighted in passing along the details, all completely untrue. Mahathir's father considered himself a Malay and he ensured that all his children were nothing else but Malay.

In his writings, which began before he went to Singapore, Mahathir identified totally with the Malays and showed he was intimately familiar with their customs, social life and problems, whether it was education, fishing or padi planting. His more overtly political contributions were polemical, and uncompromising in defence of Malay rights. Foreshadowing the nationalist stance that would make him a hero to many Malays when he entered Parliament, he criticized the colonial administration, called for the re-introduction of Malay as an official language, alongside English, and made the case for "retarding progress" sometimes in order to help the Malays advance. Well ahead of his time, he also advocated women's rights, arguing especially for women to be given opportunities in education and employment.[43] At the same time, Mahathir began to reveal critical opinions about the Malays themselves that