What to make of Mahathir’s return to power in Malaysia
On May 11, the 92-year-old veteran politician and former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in as the seventh prime minister of Malaysia. What preceded was quite unprecedented: ever since independence in 1961, Malaysia had been ruled by the Barisan Nasional (National Front), a right-wing alliance of various ethnic parties led by the UMNO (United Malays National Organization), the MCI (Malaysian Chinese Association) and the MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress), which had, on and off, been joined by other groupings. Malaysia’s UMNO had been crippled by corruption and the incumbent Prime Minister, Najib Razak, was particularly weighed down by the 1MDB (Malaysia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund) money laundering/corruption scandal, which had the Swiss and Singaporean authorities investigating the involvement of senior politicians. This was not good for the image of Malaysia and clearly bothered the people.
So when the UMNO veteran Mahathir launched his campaign to run the country in the last election, the people responded, giving his new political home the Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) a single majority. The surprising thing is that even the young came out in droves supporting the nonagenarian.
Dato Seri Mahathir Mohamad is an unusual man who had been a towering figure in the UMNO since the early 1970s. Some of the thinking behind Malaysia’s National Economic Policy (NEP) was based on thoughts in his controversial book "The Malay Dilemma," which he had written in 1970. The NEP sought to achieve economic empowerment of the ethnic Malay majority. It was launched against the backdrop of the bloody racial riots in 1969 in which the economically deprived Malay underclass had taken to the streets. The NEP was a huge economic and social engineering project, and very controversial as it was built on positive discrimination in favor of the Malays. On the flipside, it brought about better social cohesion in the country. There were no racial riots after 1969.
When Mahathir became prime minister in 1981 he put Malaysia firmly on the global economic map. Looking at Japan’s economic ascent and the successes of the four Asian tigers, he launched the “Look East" policy, seeking to emulate how Japan had achieved its hitherto unparalleled growth. The plot worked and Malaysia became one of the favored destinations for foreign direct Investment in the 1980s and 1990s.
The surprising thing was that even the young came out in droves supporting the nonagenarian in the last election.
Cornelia Meyer
Mahathir was a visionary, but he had his flaws. His three main disciples were Anwar Ibrahim, Najib Razak and Abdullah Bedawi. The latter followed Mahathir as prime minister, but his tenure was not successful. Najib followed his elder, leaving a legacy of mismanagement and corruption scandals. Mahathir’s greatest failing was going against his former deputy Anwar Ibrahim, because he felt threatened by the younger man’s rising popularity. Anwar paid dearly for falling out with Mahathir as it left him imprisoned twice. (He currently sits in jail on trumped-up charges.) In the meantime Anwar’s wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, and his daughter, Nurul Izzah, kept the flag of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People’s Justice Party) flying.
In the latest twist Mahathir has promised to pardon his old foe and bring him back into the fold of politics. In the meantime, Anwar’s wife will serve as the deputy PM.
What are we to make of these extraordinary developments? For one, people will in the end go against corrupt elites and leaders, as we have seen time and time again. It is also refreshing to see that Malaysian democracy is alive and kicking and the electorate is capable of overthrowing the status quo in not returning to power a coalition that has ruled for 47 years.
And what about Mahathir? He is an extraordinary man who had brought economic success to his country during his 22-year rule. He also is an autocrat who more often than not refused to tolerate dissenting views. He objected to the potential of his disciple (Anwar) eclipsing him in popularity.
However, Mahathir is under the current circumstances a safe pair of hands. We can hope that he has mellowed and understands that, given his age, he has to hand over power sooner rather than later. Anwar Ibrahim would certainly be a good candidate, but there may also be others. For the sake of Malaysia, let us hope that what happened serves as a warning for future leaders not to engage in corruption and to put the good of the country before the good of self.
- Cornelia Meyer is a business consultant, macroeconomist and energy expert. Twitter: @MeyerResources
