Mahathir resigned at the gathering of his party UMNO. I think you'll see a very different side to a man who was originally trained as a family physician, but soon became a fixture in Asia's history books.īefore we look at that conversation, I want to take you back a few months, to the day Dr. Mahathir's official residence in Putrajaya. In this special edition of TALK ASIA, I'll share the personal conversation we had in Dr. Mahathir is widely criticized and admired for his authoritarian leadership and his resistance to values many Western nations take for granted. In that time, he has become a living symbol of Malay nationalism and the drive to turn a postcolonial backwater into a success story of independence. Mahathir Mohamad has spent two decades as Malaysian Prime Minister. This week, a rare and exclusive interview with Asia's longest serving leader in office.

It shows, perhaps unintentionally, many of the mechanisms by which elitist colonial rules of politics are passed on.Malaysian Prime Minister Mohamad Mahathir Interview Transcript

The description of the laws and institutions of the Malayan Emergency, such as the Internal Security Act, is especially illuminating. The author reveals the way common resistance to the Japanese kept various forces together, and how the surrender of Japan on August 16, 1945, created a new situation in which ethnicity, domestic ideology, and attitude toward British rule suddenly created dividing lines that were soon framed within the logic of global cold war between Communists and anti-Communists. The book has an interesting analysis on the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960), a conflict where anticolonial and anti-Japanese radicalism was mixed with Communist insurgency and ethnic (Chinese) loyalty. I review here the contributions this book makes to our knowledge of conflicts that Malaysia and Prime Minister Mahathir have been involved in. With its more than 800 pages, the book deserves a review from the various perspectives for which it offers invaluable information. It contains crucial insights for people interested in the formation of Malaysia's current policy line, but the book is also a good read for people interested in Malaysia's role in issues of domestic and international peace and conflict. Malaysia's former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad's (1981-2003) book is an impressive study of modern political history. Petaling Jaya, Malaysia: MPH Publishing, 2011. A Doctor in the House: The Memoirs of Tun Dr.

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