Mahathir Mohamad

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Mahathir Mohamad

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This is aMalay name; the nameMohamadis apatronymic, not afamily name, and the personshould be referred to by thegiven name,Mahathir.

Yang Amat Berbahagia TunMahathir Mohamad

4thPrime Minister of Malaysia

In office16 July 198131 October 2003

Monarch

Ahmad Shah

IskandarAzlan Shah

Jaafar

Salahuddin

Mizan Zainal Abidin(Regent)Sirajuddin

Deputy

Musa HitamGhafar Baba

Anwar IbrahimAbdullah Ahmad Badawi

Preceded by Hussein Onn

Succeeded by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi

4thDeputy Prime Minister of Malaysia
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In office5 March 197616 July 1981

MonarchYahya Petra

Ahmad Shah

Prime

Minister Hussein Onn

Preceded by Hussein Onn

Succeeded by Musa Hitam

21stSecretary General of Non-Aligned Movement

In office20 February 200331 October 2003

Preceded by Thabo Mbeki

Succeeded by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi

Member of the Dewan Rakyat

In office25 April 196410 May 1969

Constituency Kota Setar Selatan

In office24 August 197421 March 2004

Constituency Kubang Pasu

Personal details

Born10 July 1925 (age 87)

Alor Star,British Malaya(nowMalaysia)

Political party United Malays NationalOrganisation

Spouse(s) Siti Hasmah

Children

Marina

MirzanMelinda

Mokhzani

MukhrizMaizura

Mazhar

Alma mater University of Malaya

Profession Physician

Religion Sunni Islam

Signature
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TunDr.Mahathir bin Mohamad(Jawi: ;pronounced[mahar bn

mohamad]; born 10 July 1925) is aMalaysianpolitician who was the fourthPrime Minister ofMalaysia. He held the post for 22 years from 1981 to 2003, making him Malaysia's longest

serving Prime Minister. His political career spanned almost 40 years.

Born and raised inAlor Setar,Kedah, Mahathir excelled at school and became a medical doctor.He became active in theUnited Malays National Organisation(UMNO), Malaysia's largest

political party, before entering parliament in 1964. He served one term before losing his seat,before falling out with the then Prime Minister,Tunku Abdul Rahmanand being expelled from

UMNO. WhenAbdul Rahmanresigned, Mahathir re-entered UMNO and parliament, and was

promoted to the Cabinet. By 1976, he had risen to Deputy Prime Minister, and in 1981 wassworn in as Prime Minister after the resignation of his predecessor,Hussein Onn.

During Mahathir's tenure as Prime Minister, Malaysia experienced rapid modernisation and

economic growth, and his government initiated a series of bold infrastructure projects. He was adominant political figure, winning five consecutive general elections and seeing off all of his

rivals for the leadership of UMNO. However, his accumulation of power came at the expense ofthe independence of the judiciary and the traditional powers and privileges of Malaysia's royalty.He also deployed the controversialInternal Security Actto detain activists, non-mainstream

religious figures, and political opponents including his sacked deputy,Anwar Ibrahim.

Mahathir's record of curbing civil liberties and his antagonism to western diplomatic interestsand economic policy made his relationships with the likes of the US, Britain and Australia

difficult. As Prime Minister, he was an advocate of third-world development and a prominent

international activist for causes such as the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and the

interests of Bosnians in the 1990sBalkans conflict.

He remains an active political figure in his retirement, having become a strident critic of his

handpicked successor,Abdullah Badawi, and actively supporting Abdullah's replacement byNajib Razak.

Childhood and medical career

Mahathir was born at his parents' home in a poor neighbourhood ofAlor Setar, the capital of the

state ofKedah,British Malaya, on 10 July 1925.[1][N 1]

His father was of mixedMalayand

Malayalidescent; his mother, Wan Tempawan, was Malay. Mahathir's non-Malay ancestry is afeature shared by Malaysia's six prime ministers. But another aspect of Mahathir's birth set him

apart from the other five: he was not born into the aristocracy or a prominent religious or

political family.[2][N 2]

Mahatir's father was a school principal whose low socio-economic status

meant his daughters were unable to enroll in secondary school, while Wan Tempawan Mahathirhad only a distant relationship to Kedah's royalty. Both parents had been married previously;

Mahathir had six half-siblings and two full-siblings.[3]
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The secondary school attended by Mahathir and founded by his father, now theSultan Abdul Hamid

College[5]

Mahathir was a hard-working student. Discipline imposed by his father motivated him to study,

and he showed little interest in sports. He won a position in aselectiveEnglish medium

secondary school, having become fluent in English well ahead of his primary school peers .[6]

With schools closed during theJapanese occupation of MalayaduringWorld War II, he went

into business, first selling coffee and laterpisang goreng(banana fritters) and other snacks.[1]

After the war, he graduated from secondary school with high marks and enrolled to studymedicine at the King Edward VII College of Medicine in Singapore (now part ofNational

University of Singapore).[7]

There he met his future wife,Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, a fellow

medical student. After he graduated, Mahathir worked as a doctor in government service beforemarrying in 1956. He returned to Alor Setar the following year to set up his own practice. He

was the town's first Malay doctor and was successful. He built a large house, invested in various

businesses, and employed a Chinese chauffeur to drive hisPontiac Catalina(most chauffeurs at

the time were Malay).[8][9]

He and Siti Hasmah had their first child,Marina, in 1957, beforeconceiving three others and adopting three more over the following 28 years.[10]

Early political career

Mahathir had been politically active since the end of the Japanese occupation of Malaya, when

he joined protests against the granting of citizenship to non-Malays under the short-lived

Malayan Union.[11]

He later argued for affirmative action for Malays at medical college. While atcollege he contributed toThe Straits Timesunder the pseudonym "C.H.E. Det", and a student

journal, in which he fiercely promoted Malay rights, such as restoring Malay as an official

language.[12]

While practising as a doctor in Alor Setar, Mahathir became active in UMNO; by

the time of thefirst general electionfor the independent state ofMalayain 1959, he was the

chairman of the party in Kedah.

[13]

Despite his prominence in UMNO, Mahathir was not acandidate in the 1959 election, ruling himself out following a disagreement with then Prime

MinisterTunku Abdul Rahman. The relationship between the two Kedahans had been strainedsince Mahathir had criticised Abdul Rahman's agreement to the retention of British and

Commonwealthforces in Malaya after independence. Now Abdul Rahman opposed Mahathir's

plans to introduce minimum educational qualifications for UMNO candidates. For Mahathir this

was a significant enough slight to delay his entry into national politics in protest. The delay did
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not last for long. In the followinggeneral electionin 1964, he was elected as the federal

parliamentarian for the Alor Setar-based seat of Kota Setar Selatan.[14]

Elected to parliament in a volatile political period, Mahathir, as a government backbencher,

launched himself into the main conflict of the day: the future of Singapore, with its large and

economically powerful ethnic Chinese population, as a state of Malaysia. He vociferouslyattacked Singapore's dominantPeople's Action Partyfor being "pro-Chinese" and "anti-Malay"

and called its leader,Lee Kuan Yew, "arrogant". Singapore was expelled from Malaysia inMahathir's first full year in parliament.[14][15]However, despite Mahathir's prominence as a

backbencher, he lost his seat in the1969 election, defeated byYusof Rawaof thePan-Malaysian

Islamic Party(PAS).[16]

Mahathir attributed the loss of his seat to ethnic Chinese votersswitching support from UMNO to PAS (being a Malay-dominated seat, only the two major

Malay parties fielded candidates, leaving Chinese voters to choose between the Malay-centric

UMNO and the Islamist PAS).[17]

Large government losses in the election were followed by the

race riotsof 13 May 1969, in which hundreds of people were killed in clashes between Malaysand Chinese. The previous year, Mahathir had predicted the outbreak of racial hostility. Now,

outside parliament, he openly criticised the government, sending a letter to Abdul Rahman inwhich the prime minister was criticised for failing to uphold Malay interests. The letter, which

soon became public, called for Abdul Rahman's resignation.[18]

By the end of the year, Mahathirhad been sacked from UMNO's Supreme Council and expelled from the party; Abdul Rahman

had to be persuaded not to have him arrested.[16][17]

While in the political wilderness, Mahathir wrote his first book,The Malay Dilemma, in which

he set out his vision for the Malay community. The book argued that a balance had to be

achieved between enough government support for Malays so that their economic interests wouldnot be dominated by the Chinese, and exposing Malays to sufficient competition to ensure that

over time, Malays would lose what Mahathir saw as the characteristics of avoiding hard work

and failing to "appreciate the real value of money and property".

[19]

The book continuedMahathir's criticism of Abdul Rahman's government, and it was promptly banned. The ban was

only lifted after Mahathir became prime minister in 1981; he thus served as a minister and

deputy prime minister while being the author of a banned book.[16][20]

Academics R. S. Milne and

Diane K. Mauzy argue that Mahathir's relentless attacks were the principal cause of AbdulRahman's downfall and subsequent resignation as prime minister in 1970.[21]

Return to politics and ascent to premiership

Abdul Rahman resigned in 1970 and was replaced byAbdul Razak Hussein. Razak encouragedMahathir back into the party, and had him appointed as aSenatorin 1973.

[22]He rose quickly in

the Razak government, returning to UMNO's Supreme Council in 1973, and being appointed toCabinet in 1974 as the Minister for Education. He also returned to theHouse of Representatives,

winning the Kedah-based seat of Kubang Pasu unopposed in the1974 election.[16]One of his

first acts as Minister for Education was to introduce greater government control over Malaysia's

universities, despite strong opposition from the academic community.[23]

He also moved to limitpolitics on university campuses, giving his ministry the power to discipline students and

academics who were politically active, and making scholarships for students conditional on the

avoidance of politics.[24]
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In 1975, Mahathir ran for one of the three vice-presidencies of UMNO. The contest was

considered to be a battle for the succession of the party's leadership, with both Razak and hisdeputy,Hussein Onn, in declining health. Each of Razak's preferred candidates was elected:

former Chief Minister ofMelaka,Ghafar Baba;Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, a wealthy

businessman and member ofKelantan's royal family; and Mahathir. When Razak died the

following year, Hussein as his successor was forced to choose between the three men to beDeputy Prime Minister; he also considered the ambitious ministerGhazali Shafie. Each of

Mahathir's rivals had significant political liabilities: Ghazali, having been defeated by the others

for a vice-presidency, lacked the support of UMNO members; Ghafar had no higher educationand was not fluent in English; and Razaleigh was young, inexperienced and, critically,

unmarried. But Hussein's decision was not easy. Hussein and Mahathir were not close allies, and

Hussein knew the choice of Mahathir would displease Abdul Rahman, still alive and revered asthe father of Malaysia's independence. After six weeks of indecision Mahathir was, much to his

surprise, appointed as Hussein's deputy. The appointment meant that Mahathir was the anointed

successor to the prime ministership.[25][26]

Mahathir is regarded has having been a successful Minister for Education and then Minister forTrade and Industry (19781981).[21]

In the latter post, he implemented a "heavy industries

policy", establishing aHICOM, a government-controlled corporation, to invest in the long-termdevelopment of manufacturing sectors such as an indigenous car industry.[27]He spent much of

his time in the ministry promoting Malaysia through overseas visits.[24]

However, Mahathir was

not an influential Deputy Prime Minister. Hussein was a cautious Prime Minister who rejectedmany of Mahathir's bold policy proposals. While the relationship between Hussein and Mahathir

was distant, Ghazali and Razaleigh became Hussein's closest advisers, often bypassing the more

senior Mahathir when accessing Hussein. Nonetheless, when Hussein relinquished power due to

ill health in 1981, Mahathir succeeded him unopposed and with his blessing.[28]

Prime Minister

Domestic affairs

Mahathir was sworn in as Prime Minister on 16 July 1981, at the age of 56.[29]One of his first

acts was to release 21 detainees held under theInternal Security Act, including journalistSamad

Ismailand a former deputy minister in Hussein's government,Abdullah Ahmad, who had been

suspected of being an underground communist.[30]

Otherwise, he approached his first two yearsin the job with caution, knowing that he still had many enemies within his own party.[29]He

appointed his close ally,Musa Hitam, as Deputy Prime Minister.[31]

Early years (19811987)

Mahathir exercised caution in his first two years in power, consolidating his leadership ofUMNO and, with victory in the1982 general election, the government.[32][33]In 1983, Mahathir

commenced the first of a number of battles he would have with Malaysia's royalty during his

premiership. The position ofYang di-Pertuan Agong, the Malaysian head of state, was due torotate in to either the elderlyIdris Shah IIofPerakor the controversialIskandarofJohor.

Mahathir had grave reservations about the two sultans. Both were activist rulers of their own
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_Mohamad#cite_note-Wain_40-31http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahathir_Mohamad#cite_note-30http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahathir_Mohamad#cite_note-Wain_39-26http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahathir_Mohamad#cite_note-29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRB-HICOMhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahathir_Mohamad#cite_note-Wain_25-23http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahathir_Mohamad#cite_note-27http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahathir_Mohamad#cite_note-27http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghazali_Shafiehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelantanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengku_Razaleigh_Hamzahhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghafar_Babahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melakahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussein_Onn


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states and Iskandar had only a few years earlier been convicted of manslaughter.[34][35]

Mahathir

tried to pre-emptively limit the power that the new Agong could wield over his government,introducing to parliament amendments to theConstitutionto deem the Agong to assent to any

bill that had not been assented within 15 days of passage by parliament. The proposal would also

remove the power to declare a state of emergency from the Agong and placed it with the Prime

Minister. The Agong at the time,Ahmad ShahofPahang, agreed with the proposals in principlebut baulked when he realised that the proposal would also deem Sultans to assent to laws passed

by state assemblies. Supported by the Sultans, the Agong refused to assent to the constitutional

amendments, which had by then passed both houses of parliament with comfortablemajorities.[36][37]When the public became aware of the impasse, and the Sultans refused to

compromise with the government, Mahathir took the streets to demonstrate public support for his

position in mass rallies. The press took the side of the government, although a large minority ofMalays, including conservative UMNO politicians, and an even larger proportion of the Chinese

community, supported the sultans. After five months, the crisis resolved, as Mahathir and the

sultans agreed to a compromise. The Agong would retain the power to declare a state of

emergency, but if he refused to assent to a bill, the bill would be returned to parliament, which

could then override the Agong's veto.

[38]

Mahathir's government used tariffs to support the development of theProtonas a Malaysian-made car.

On the economic front, Mahathir inherited theNew Economic Policyfrom his predecessors,which was designed to improve the economic position of thebumiputera(Malaysia's Malays and

indigenous peoples) through targets and affirmative action in areas such as corporate ownershipand university admission.[39]Mahathir also actively pursued privatisation of government

enterprises from the early 1980s, both for the liberal economic reasons it was being pursued by

contemporaries such asMargaret Thatcher, and because he felt that combined with affirmative

action for the bumiputera it could provide economic opportunities for bumiputera businesses.[40]

His government privatised airlines, utilities and telecommunication firms, accelerating to a rateof about 50 privatisations a year by the mid-1990s.[41]

While privatisation generally improved the

working conditions of Malaysians in privatised industries and raised significant revenue for thegovernment, many privatisations occurred in the absence of open tendering processes and

benefited Malays who supported UMNO. One of the most notable infrastructure projects at the

time was the construction of theNorthSouth Expressway, a motorway running from the Thai

border to Singapore; the contract to construct the expressway was awarded to a business ventureof UMNO.[42]Mahathir also oversaw the establishment of the car manufacturerProtonas a joint
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venture between the Malaysian government andMitsubishi. By the end of the 1980s, Proton had

overcome poor demand and losses to become, with the support of protective tariffs, the largestcar maker in Southeast Asia and a profitable enterprise.[43]

In Mahathir's early years as Prime Minister, Malaysia was experiencing a resurgence of Islam

among Malays. Malays were becoming more religious and more conservative. PAS, which hadin the 1970s joined UMNO in government, responded to the resurgence by taking an

increasingly strident Islamist stand under the leadership of the man who in 1969 had defeatedMahathir for his parliamentary seat,Yusof Rawa. Mahathir tried to appeal to religious voters by

establishing Islamic institutions such as theInternational Islamic University of Malaysiawhich

could promote Islamic education under the government's oversight. He also attractedAnwarIbrahim, the leader of theMalaysian Islamic Youth Movement(ABIM) to join UMNO. In some

cases, Mahathir's government employed repression against more extreme exponents of Islamism.

Ibrahim Libya, a popular Islamist leader, was killed in apolice shoot-outin 1985;Al-Arqam, a

religious sect, was banned and its leader,Ashaari Mohammad, arrested under the InternalSecurity Act.[44]Mahathir comprehensively defeated PAS at the polls in 1986, winning 83 seats

of the 84 seats it contested, leaving PAS with just one MP.

[45]

Exerting power (19871990)

Any illusion that the 1986 election may have created about Mahathir's political dominance wasshort-lived. In 1987, he was challenged for the presidency of UMNO, and effectively the prime

ministership, byTengku Razaleigh Hamzah. Razaleigh's career had gone backwards under

Mahathir, being demoted from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Trade and Industry.Razaleigh was supported by Musa, who had resigned as Deputy Prime Minister the previous

year. While Musa and Mahathir were originally close allies, the two had fallen out during

Mahathir's premiership, with Musa claiming that Mahathir no longer trusted him. Razaleigh and

Musa ran for the UMNO presidency and deputy presidency on a joint ticket against Mahathir andhis new choice for deputy, Ghafar Baba. The tickets were known as Team B and Team A

respectively. Mahathir's Team A enjoyed the support of the press, most party heavyweights, and

evenIskandar, now the Agong, although some significant figures, such as future prime ministerAbdullah Badawi, supported Team B. In the election, held on 24 April 1987, Team A prevailed.

Mahathir was re-elected a by a narrow margin, receiving the votes of 761 party delegates to

Razaleigh's 718. Ghafar defeated Musa by a slightly larger margin. Mahathir responded by

purging seven Team B supporters from his ministry, while Team B refused to accept defeat andinitiated litigation. In an unexpected decision in February 1988, theHigh Courtruled that

UMNO was an illegal organisation as some of its branches had not been lawfully

registered.[46][47]

Each faction raced to register a new party under the UMNO name. Mahathir's

side successfully registered the name "UMNO Baru" ("new UMNO"), while Team B'sapplication to register "UMNO Malaysia" was rejected. UMNO Malaysia under the leadership of

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, with the support of both of Malaysia's surviving former prime

ministers Abdul Rahman and Hussein, registered the partySemangat 46instead.[48]

Having survived the political crisis at least temporarily, Mahathir moved against the judiciary,fearing a successful appeal by Team B against the decision to register UMNO Baru. He steered

an amendment to the Constitution through parliament to remove the general power of the High
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Courts to conduct judicial review. The High Courts could now only engage in judicial review

where specific acts of parliament gave them the power to do so. The Lord President of theSupreme Court,Salleh Abas, responded by sending a letter of protest to the Agong. Mahathir

then suspended Salleh for "gross misbehaviour and conduct", ostensibly because the letter was a

breach of protocol. A tribunal setup by Mahathir found Salleh guilty and recommended to the

Agong that Salleh be dismissed. Five other judges of the court supported Salleh, and weresuspended by Mahathir. A newly constituted court dismissed Team B's appeal, allowing

Mahathir's faction to continue to use the name UMNO. According to Milne and Mauzy, the

episode destroyed the independence of Malaysia's judiciary.[49]

At the same time as the political and judicial crises, Mahathir initiated a crackdown onopposition dissidents with the use of the Internal Security Act. The appointment of a number of

administrators who did not speak Mandarin to Chinese schools provoked an outcry among

Chinese Malaysians to the point where UMNO's coalition partners theMalaysian Chinese

AssociationandGerakanjoined theDemocratic Action Party(DAP) in protesting theappointments. UMNO's Youth wing held a provocative protest that triggered a shooting by a

lone Malay gunman, and only Mahathir's interference prevented UMNO from staging a largerprotest. Instead, Mahathir ordered what Wain calls "the biggest crackdown on political dissent

Malaysia had ever seen". Under the police operation codenamed "Lalang", 119 people werearrested and detained without charge under the Internal Security Act. Mahathir argued that the

detentions were necessary to prevent a repeat of the 1969 race riots. Most of the detainees were

prominent opposition activists, including the leader of the DAP,Lim Kit Siang, and nine of hisfellow MPs. Three newspapers sympathetic to the opposition were shut down.[50]

Mahathir suffered a heart attack in early 1989,[51]

but recovered to lead Barisan Nasional tovictory in the1990 election. Semangat 46 failed to make any headway outside Razaleigh's home

state of Kelantan (Musa had since rejoined UMNO).[52]

Economic development to financial crisis (19901998)

The expiry of theMalaysian New Economic Policy(NEP) in 1990 gave Mahathir the

opportunity to outline his economic vision for Malaysia. In 1991, he announcedVision 2020,

under which Malaysia would aim to become a fully developed country within 30 years.[53]

The

target would require average economic growth of approximately seven per cent of grossdomestic product per annum.[54]One of Vision 2020's features would be to gradually break down

ethnic barriers. Vision 2020 was accompanied by the NEP's replacement, theNational

Development Policy(NDP), under which some government programs designed to benefit the

bumiputera exclusively were opened up to other ethnicities.[55]

The NDP achieved success in one

of its main aims, poverty reduction. By 1995, less than nine per cent of Malaysians lived inpoverty and income inequality had narrowed.[56]

Mahathir's government cut corporate taxes and

liberalised financial regulations to attract foreign investment. The economy grew by over nineper cent per annum until 1997 prompting other developing countries to try to emulate Mahathir's

policies.[57]

Much of the credit for Malaysia's economic development in the 1990s went toAnwar

Ibrahim, appointed by Mahathir as Finance Minister in 1991.[58]

The government rode theeconomic wave and won the1995 electionwith an increased majority.[59]
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wiki/Parti_Gerakan_Rakyat_Malaysiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian_Chinese_Associationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian_Chinese_Associationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahathir_Mohamad#cite_note-51http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salleh_Abashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Court_of_Malaysia


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Mahathir initiated a series of major infrastructure projects in the 1990s. One of the largest was

theMultimedia Super Corridor, an area south ofKuala Lumpur, in the mould ofSilicon Valley,designed to cater for the information technology industry. However, the project failed to generate

the investment anticipated.[60]

Other Mahathir projects included the development ofPutrajayaas

the home of Malaysia's public service, and bringing aFormula One Grand PrixtoSepang.[61]

One of the most controversial developments was theBakun DaminSarawak. The ambitioushydro-electric project was intended to carry electricity across theSouth China Seato satisfy

electricity demand in peninsular Malaysia. To deliver the project, Mahathir and the local Barisan

Nasional government selected a head contractor close to Mahathir without an open tenderingprocess. The project subsequently suffered from environmental protests, conflicts between

contractors, and opposition from the 10,000 residents who would be forcibly displaced from the

Sarawak jungle. Work on the dam was eventually suspended due to theAsian financial crisis.[62]

The financial crisis threatened to devastate Malaysia. The value of theringgitplummeted due to

currency speculation, foreign investment fled, and the main stock exchange index fell by over 75per cent. At the urging of theInternational Monetary Fund(IMF), the government cut

government spending and raised interest rates, which only served to exacerbate the economicsituation. In 1998, Mahathir reversed this policy course in defiance of the IMF and his own

deputy, Anwar. He increased government spending and fixed the ringgit to the US dollar. Theresult confounded his international critics and the IMF. Malaysia recovered from the crisis faster

than its Southeast Asian neighbours. In the domestic sphere, it was a political triumph. Amidst

the economic events of 1998, Mahathir had sacked Anwar as Finance Minister and Deputy PrimeMinister, and he could now claim to have rescued the economy in spite of Anwar's policies.[63]

In his second decade in office, Mahathir had again found himself battling Malaysia's royalty. In1992, Sultan Iskandar's son, a representativehockeyplayer, was suspended from competition for

five years for assaulting an opponent. Iskandar retaliated by pulling all Johor hockey teams out

of national competitions. When his decision was criticised by a local coach, Iskandar orderedhim to his palace and beat him. The federal parliament unanimously censured Iskandar, and

Mahathir leapt at the opportunity to remove the constitutional immunity of the sultans from civil

and criminal suits. The press backed Mahathir and, in an unprecedented development, started

airing allegations of misconduct by members of Malaysia's royal families. As the press revealedexamples of the rulers' extravagant wealth, Mahathir resolved to cut financial support to royal

households. With the press and the government pitted against them, the sultans capitulated to the

government's proposals. Their powers to deny assent to bills were limited by furtherconstitutional amendments passed in 1994. With the status and powers of the Malaysian royalty

diminished, Wain writes that by the mid-1990s Mahathir had become the country's "uncrowned

king".[64]

The final years and succession (19982003)

By the mid-1990s it had become clear that the most serious threat to Mahathir's power was the

leadership ambition of his deputy,Anwar. Anwar began to distance himself from Mahathir,

overtly promoting his superior religious credentials and appearing to suggest he favouredloosening the restrictions on civil liberties that had become a hallmark of Mahathir's

premiership.[65]However, Mahathir continued to back Anwar as his successor until their
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relationship collapsed dramatically during the Asian financial crisis. Their positions gradually

diverged, with Mahathir abandoning the tight monetary and fiscal policies urged by the IMF. Atthe UMNO General Assembly in 1998, a leading Anwar supporter,Ahmad Zahid Hamidi,

criticised the government for not doing enough to combat corruption and cronyism. As Mahathir

took the reins of Malaysia's economic policy over the coming months, Anwar was increasingly

sidelined. On 2 September, he was dismissed as Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister,and promptly expelled from UMNO. No immediate reasons were given for the dismissal,

although the media speculated that it related to lurid allegations of sexual misconduct circulated

in a "poison pen letter" at the general assembly.[66]

As more allegations surfaced, large publicrallies were held in support of Anwar. On 20 September, he was arrested and placed in detention

under the Internal Security Act.[67]

Anwar stood trial on four charges of corruption, arising from allegations that Anwar abused his

power by ordering police to intimidate persons who had alleged Anwar had sodomised them.

Before Anwar's trial, Mahathir told the press that he was convinced of Anwar's guilt. He wasfound guilty in April 1999 and sentenced to six years in prison.[68]In another trial shortly after,

Anwar was sentenced to another nine years in prison on a conviction for sodomy.

[69]

The sodomyconviction was overturned on appeal after Mahathir left office.[70]

While Mahathir had vanquished his rival, it came at a cost to his standing in the international

community and domestic politics. US Secretary of StateMadeleine Albrightdefended Anwar asa "highly respectable leader" who was "entitled to due process and a fair trial" .[71]In a speech in

Kuala Lumpur, which Mahathir attended, US Vice PresidentAl Gorestated that "we continue to

hear calls for democracy", including "among the brave people of Malaysia".[72]

At theAPEC

summit in 1999, Canadian Prime MinisterJean Chrtienrefused to meet Mahathir, while hisforeign minister met with Anwar's wife,Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.[73]Wan Azizah had formed a

liberal opposition party, theNational Justice Party(Keadilan) to fight the1999 election. UMNO

lost 18 seats and two state governments as large numbers of Malay voters flocked to PAS andKeadilan, many in protest at the treatment of Anwar.[74]

At UMNO's general assembly in 2002, Mahathir announced that he would resign as PrimeMinister, only for supporters to rush to the stage and convince him tearfully to remain. He

subsequently fixed his retirement for October 2003, giving him time to ensure an orderly and

uncontroversial transition to his anointed successor,Abdullah Badawi.[75]

Having spent over 22years in office, Mahathir was the world's longest-serving elected leader when he retired.[76]He

remains Malaysia's longest-serving prime minister.

Foreign relations

Thissection of a biographical articleneeds additionalcitationsforverification. Please help byaddingreliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly

sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentiallylibelousor harmful. (January

2008)

During Mahathir's term, Malaysia's relationship with the West was generally fine despite hisbeing known as an outspoken critic towards it.[77]Early during his tenure, a small disagreement
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org/wiki/Asia-Pacific_Economic_Cooperationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahathir_Mohamad#cite_note-74http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gorehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahathir_Mohamad#cite_note-73http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Albrighthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahathir_Mohamad#cite_note-72http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahathir_Mohamad#cite_note-71http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahathir_Mohamad#cite_note-70http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahathir_Mohamad#cite_note-69http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahathir_Mohamad#cite_note-68http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Zahid_Hamidi


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with the United Kingdom over universitytuitionfees sparked a boycott of all British goods led

by Mahathir, in what became known as the "Buy British Last" campaign. It also led to a searchfor development models in Asia, most notably Japan. This was the beginning of his famous

"Look East Policy".[78]

Although the dispute was later resolved by Prime MinisterMargaret

Thatcher, Mahathir continued to emphasize Asiandevelopment modelsover contemporary

Western ones... he particularly criticized the double standards of Western nations

[79]

United States

Main article:Malaysia United States relations

Mahathir has always been an outspoken critic of the United States[80]

and yet the United States

was the biggest source of foreign investment, and was Malaysia's biggest customer duringMahathir's rule. Furthermore, Malaysian military officers continued to train in the US under the

InternationalMilitary Education And Training(IMET) program.

TheBBCreported that relations with the United States took a turn for the worse in 1998,[81]

when US Vice PresidentAl Gorestated at theAsia-Pacific Economic Cooperation(APEC)conference hosted by Malaysia:

Democracy confers a stamp oflegitimacythat reforms must have in order to be effective. And

so, among nations suffering economic crises, we continue to hear calls for democracy, calls forreform, in many languagesPeople Power, doi moi, reformasi. We hear them todayright here,

right nowamong the brave people of Malaysia.

Gore was asked to leave immediately after making this statement, possibly as a form of protest

by Malaysia.[citation needed]

Gore and the United States were critical of the trial of Mahathir's former deputy Anwar Ibrahim,going as far to label it as a "show trial".US News and World Reportcalled the trial a "tawdry

spectacle."[82]

The government included the statements of the purported "victims" of Anwar's

sodomy attacks, evidence that was widely considered to be tainted. Furthermore, the prosecutionwas unable to determine the date on which the alleged acts had occurred. The government

originally contended that an act of sodomy had occurred inside a building that had not been

constructed at the time of the alleged event. Mahathir himself went as far as to go on televisionto declare Anwar guilty of sodomy and homosexual acts, even as the trial still was under way. In

response to widespread condemnation of the trial from human-rights groups and the Malaysian

bar association, he ordered a crackdown on the media and opposition parties who protested the

trial. Many of the "reformasi" supporters who were against Mahathir at that time were arrested

by the FRU and Special Branch and were detained without trial under the ISA. Some of themwere opposition supporters, and some of them were former academics.

Also, Anwar Ibrahim was the preeminent Malaysian spokesperson for the economic policies

preferred by the IMF, which included interest-rate hikes. An article inMalaysia Today

commented that "Gore's comments constituted a none-too-subtle attack on Malaysia's PrimeMinister Mahathir Mohamad and more generally on governments, including Japan, that resist US

demands for further market reforms."[83]

Gore's endorsement for the reformasi (reformation)
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Documents

Mahathir Mohamad