Mahathir Mohamad, the spry two-time prime minister of Malaysia, turned 100 on July 10. Visionary but detail-oriented, charismatic yet divisive, Mahathir has profoundly shaped the country’s politics, economy and society over the past six decades.
His entry into electoral politics was a turning point. In 1964, Mahathir contested his first parliamentary seat for Umno in Kedah. Unlike the United Malays National Organisation’s urbane, first-generation leaders, Mahathir came from a rural background and articulated a more ethnically focused vision for Malaysia than was customary at the time.
Following a brief period in the political wilderness, the result of his clashes with Malaysia’s founding prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Mahathir rejoined Umno in the wake of the racial unrest of May 1969. His rhetoric and outlook fit in with the country’s conscious pivot towards addressing wealth disparities among its various ethnic groups.
First ascending to the premiership in 1981, Mahathir led Malaysia for an unprecedented 22 years. His stewardship of the economy was, at the macro level, laudable. He was committed to balanced budgets, maintained a relatively open economy, prioritised infrastructure investment and courted foreign direct investment. The result was an average annual growth rate of 6 to 7 per cent.
Tourists take pictures in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday with the Petronas Twin Towers in the background. Photo: AFP
Mahathir was determined to make Malaysia a modern, self-sufficient and “fully developed” nation by 2020. This quest was fuelled by Malaysia’s deep reservoirs of petroleum, whose revenues swelled in the 1980s. His ensuing infrastructure drive transformed the nation’s landscape, yielding icons such as Kuala Lumpur International Airport, the Petronas Twin Towers and the more contentious Multimedia Super-Corridor.
