Mahathir Mohamad

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Mahathir bin Mohamad (born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician who currently serves as Malaysia's prime minister.

He was elected prime minister in 1981 but resigned in 2003 and returned to the office in 2018.

He is the chairman of the Pakatan Harapan party, as well as a member of the Malaysian Parliament for the Langkawi constituency in the state of Kedah.

Mahathir's political career spans more than 70 years, beginning with protests against non-Malays being granted Malaysian citizenship during the Malaysian Union and then leading to the formation of his own party, the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (PPBM). Mahathir, who was born and raised in Alor Setar, Kedah, excelled at school and became a physician.

He was instrumental in the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) before entering parliament in 1964.

He served one term before losing his position, then fell out with Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman and was booted out from UMNO.

Early life and education

Mahathir was born in a poor neighborhood in Lorong Kilang Ais, Alor Setar, the capital of the Malay sultanate of Kedah, which was then a British protectorate, on July 10th, 1925. Wan Tempawan Wan Hanapi, his mother, was born in Kedah, and was named after him. Mohamad Iskandar, his father, was a Penang Malayan of Indian descent. Mahathir's paternal grandfather came from Rangunia, Bangladesh's second largest city, and married a Malay woman. However, Mahathir's birth set him apart from the other first six prime ministers: he was not born into the aristocracy or a wealthy religious or political clan. Mohamad was the principal of an English-medium secondary school, but his children were unable to enroll in a secondary school due to their lower-middle-class status, and Wan Tempawan had only distant links to members of Kedah's royal family. Both parents had been married before; Mahathir was born with six half-siblings and two full-siblings. Mahathir Mohamad's birth house complex was recently converted and opened to the public.

Mahathir, a hardworking student, was a student at the University of Delhi. His father's discipline compelled him to enroll, but he showed no interest in sports. He gained a teaching position in a selective English medium secondary school, having become fluent in English well before his primary school peers. During World War II's Japanese occupation of Malaya, he established a small shop first serving coffee and then pisang goreng (banana fritters) and other snacks.

Mahathir graduated from secondary school with the highest ranking and enrolled in medical school at the King Edward VII College of Medicine in Singapore after the war. Mahathir, who obtained a MBBS medical degree in Gyneocology and Osterorician, served as a physician in government service before marrying Siti Hasmah in 1956, returning to Alor Setar the following year to begin his own practice. He was the town's first Malay doctor and a lucrative one. He built a large house, invested in various companies, and recruited a Chinese man to chauffeur him in Pontiac Catalina (most chauffeurs at the time were Malay).

Personal life

He met Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, a fellow medical student, in college. They were married in 1956. Marina was born in 1957, before giving birth to four others, Mirzan, Mokhzani, Melinda, and Mukhriz, as well as adopting two more, Maizura, and Mazhar over the following 28 years.

Mahathir underwent heart bypass surgery in 2007, following two heart attacks in the last two years. Since suffering his heart attack in 1989, he had undergone the same surgery. He had a chest infection after the 2007 surgery. In 2010, he was admitted to the hospital for the treatment of another chest infection.

Mahathir was admitted to Institut Jantung Negara (IJN) for a medical check-up on December 16, 2021. Mahathir will have a complete medical check-up and further examination, according to IJN, who also said he will be in IJN for the next few days. Mahathir was dismissed from the IJN at 11.30 a.m. on December 23.

Mahathir underwent an unspecified elective medical procedure at the Malaysian National Heart Institute (IJN) on January 7th and was discharged six days later. In late January 2022, he was admitted to the IJN and escorted to the coronary care unit. Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob joined Mahathir at 5.34 p.m. along with his security detail. Marina Mahathir's daughter, who was still recovering in hospital and had been moved to a regular ward from intensive care on January 26. Institut Jantung Negara (IJN), a medical institution, had announced on Friday that he had been discharged and recovering, as well as a follow-up of his medical care.

Mahathir was positive for COVID-19 on August 31, 2022. As the medical team has advised, he has been admitted to the National Heart Institute for observation for the next few days. Mahathir was discharged on September 4th after being hospitalized.

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Early political career (1959–1970)

Mahatir had been politically active since the end of Malaya's Japanese occupation when he joined protests against citizenship granting to non-Malays under the short-lived Malayan Union. He later argued for affirmative action for Malays at medical college. While at college, he contributed to The Straits Times under 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. While practising as a physician in Alor Setar, Mahathir became active in UMNO; by the time of the first general election for the independent state of Malaya in 1959, he was the chairman of the party in Kedah. Despite his prominence in UMNO, Mahathir was not a candidate in the 1959 election, ruling himself out following a disagreement with then Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. The relationship between the two Kedahans had been strained since Mahathir had criticised Tunku Abdul Rahman's agreement to retain British and Commonwealth forces in Malaya after independence. Now Tunku 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 not last for long. In the following general election in 1964, he was elected as the federal parliamentarian for the Alor Setar-based seat of Kota Setar Selatan.

Elected to parliament in a volatile political period, Mahathir, as a government backbencher, launched himself into the main conflict of the day: Singapore's future, with its large and economically powerful ethnic Chinese population, as a state of Malaysia. He vociferously attacked Singapore's dominant People's Action Party for being "pro-Chinese" and "anti-Malay" and called its leader, Lee Kuan Yew, "arrogant". Singapore was expelled from Malaysia in Mahathir's first full year in parliament. However, despite Mahathir's prominence as a backbencher, he lost his seat in the 1969 election, defeated by Yusof Rawa of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS). Mahathir attributed the loss of his seat to ethnic Chinese voters switching 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).

Large government losses in the election were followed by the race riots of 13 May 1969. Hundreds of people were killed in clashes between Malays and Chinese. The previous year, Mahathir had predicted the outbreak of racial hostility. Now, outside parliament, he openly criticised the government, sending a letter to Tunku Abdul Rahman. The prime minister was criticised for failing to uphold Malay interests. The letter, which soon became public, called for Tunku Abdul Rahman's resignation. By the end of the year, Mahathir had been fired from UMNO's Supreme Council and expelled from the party; Tunku Abdul Rahman had to be persuaded not to have him arrested.

While in the political wilderness, Mahathir wrote his first book, The Malay Dilemma. 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 would not 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". The book continued Mahathir's criticism of Tunku 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. Academics R. S. Milne and Diane K. Mauzy argue that Mahathir's relentless attacks were the principal cause of Tunku Abdul Rahman's downfall and subsequent resignation as prime minister in 1970.

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