Mahathir Mohamad
Mahathir bin Mohamad (born December 20,1925 in Alor Setar) has been the prime minister of Malaysia since 1981. He is resigning on October 31, 2003.
In 1964, Mahathir, a doctor by profession, entered the Malaysian parliament as a member of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party. He held several ministerial posts in the 1970s, including deputy prime minister beginning in 1976.
Mahathir forcefully guided Malaysia's recent rapid development as a regional high-tech manufacturing, financial. and telecommunications hub through his policies of economic nationalism.
During the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Mahathir was strongly criticized by the international financial community for contravening IMF policies by keeping interest rates down and braking the flow of foreign capital, but it meant that Malaysia's downturn was shorter and shallower than those of the other countries affected. Mahathir blamed currency speculators for the crisis, foremost among them George Soros. Critics said his accusations were "tinged with anti-semitism."
With a twenty-two year grip on power, Mahathir is also seen as a political "strongman", and has been criticised for his authoritarian policies and use of state power to suppress opponents via the media, the judiciary and law enforcement agencies. In the most notorious case, the government brought sodomy and abuse of power charges against a former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, for which he was given a nine-year sentence in 2003. Anwar was an advocate for a pro-free market approach sympathetic to foreign investment and trade liberalization Anwar's supporters tried to turn corruption and nepotism into major political issues, with Mahathir and his associates the unstated target, and this unleashed the wrath of the government.
Although Mahathir is generally seen as a moderate Muslim, he is not above playing the fundamentalist card to gain political advantage. When the more fundamentalist Parti Islam SeMalaysia (Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, Pas) starting gaining power (it now controls two northern provinces where it has imposed Islamic sharia law), Mahathir tried to bolster his party's position by declaring that Malaysia is an Islamic state, in direct contravention of the constitution which states that the country is a secular nation. This statement alarmed Malaysian moderates who fear sharia law being extended to its non-Muslim population, notably the large population of ethnic Chinese.
On October 16, 2003, he said in a speech to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference that "The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them," which prompted condemnations from the EU, USA, Israel, and Australia, among others, and the Malaysian opposition party Democratic Action Party. Condemnation from Australia was especially rare, as that nation has ignored Mahathir's rhetoric in the past.
Mahathir has been a outspoken proponent of Asian values, a kind of authoritarian collectivism, as an alternative to American individualism and laissez-faire capitalism.
Mahathir is married and has seven children.
He is the author of the following books:
- The Malay Dilemma (1970)
- The Pacific Rim in the 21st Century (1995)
- The Challenges of Turmoil (1998)
- A New Deal for Asia (1999)
- Islam & The Muslim Ummah (2001)
- Globalisation and the New Realities (2002)
- Reflections on Asia (2002)
Quotes
- "We cannot fight them (the Jews) through brawn alone, we must use our brains also," said in an speech to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference on October 16.
- "Even among the Jews there are many who do not approve of what the Israelis are doing." (same speech—cf Neturei Karta)