Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times by Barry Wain (fantasy novels to read .TXT) 📕

While Dr. Mahathir ensured that Anwar did not succeed him, it was something of a Pyrrhic victory. The episode exposed the deeply authoritarian nature of Dr. Mahathir's administration and the institutional rot that had set in during his long years at the helm. It also raised doubts about Dr. Mahathir's vaunted political judgment and renewed speculation about when, if ever, he intended to retire. Large numbers of Malaysians, especially Malays, remained alienated and looked upon Dr. Mahathir as an ogre. No matter how he tried, Dr. Mahathir could never bury the Anwar issue. Like a bad odour, it hung around as long as he stayed on, constantly testing his patience and permanently sullying his name.

Dr. Mahathir's dismissal of Anwar ended a relationship that was long, complicated and, in part, personal as well as professional. Although born more than two decades apart, the men shared similarities in their ideas and political careers. They were commoners in contrast with former UMNO leaders who had aristocratic backgrounds, though Anwar's middle-class upbringing was more comfortable than Dr. Mahathir's. The son of a hospital orderly who became an UMNO member of parliament, with a mother who also was an active party member, Anwar completed secondary school as a boarder at the elite Malay College in Kuala Kangsar, the country's most prestigious school. He excelled at debating, led Islamic study groups and eventually was appointed school captain.[2]

When they first met in the late 1960s, Anwar was a student leader at the University of Malaya and Dr. Mahathir was a first-term parliamentarian, both making a name for themselves as Malay nationalists. A skilful political strategist with clear views on what he wanted to achieve, Anwar — like Dr. Mahathir — had politics in his blood. In 1968, Anwar took over the two major Malay student organizations in the country, uniting the Malay nationalist and Islamic streams.[3] Under his direction, they addressed Malay backwardness in such areas as health, education and economics, while pressuring politicians to keep earlier promises to make Malay the sole national language. Anwar and other students would visit Dr. Mahathir at his residence in Kuala Lumpur, at his invitation, to discuss shared concerns.[4]

The venue was significant. It was the home of Dr. Mahathir's close friend and fellow UMNO member of parliament, Tunku Abdullah Tuanku Abdul Rahman, with whom Alor Star-based Dr. Mahathir often stayed when Parliament was in session. Tunku Abdullah was President of the Malaysian Youth Council, an umbrella organization for all youth groups, which would later include Anwar's Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (ABIM). In 1972, Anwar would succeed Tunku Abdullah as head of the multiracial Malaysian Youth Council, a post usually reserved for a senior UMNO member, providing Anwar with the opportunity to work beyond the Malay community.

Anwar and his followers admired the outspoken Dr. Mahathir, and they supported him when he lost his seat in the 1969 election and blamed Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman's allegedly pro-Chinese policies for the "May 13" tragedy that followed. A few of the students helped circulate copies of Dr. Mahathir's notorious letter condemning the Tunku before it was banned. They also distributed copies of the first two chapters of The Malay Dilemma, which Dr. Mahathir passed to Anwar, before the complete book was published and proscribed. The students staged anti-Tunku demonstrations and continued to provide Dr. Mahathir with a platform after he was expelled from UMNO.

In the following decade, however, Dr. Mahathir and Anwar found themselves not only on opposite sides of the political fence, but in conflict. Readmitted to UMNO in 1972, re-elected to Parliament in 1974 and immediately appointed education minister, Dr. Mahathir took a hard line to quell academic and student protests. Dr. Mahathir strongly supported a government decision to arrest Anwar, then head of ABIM, without trial under the Internal Security Act, after he backed mass demonstrations to protest peasant suffering in Kedah in late 1974.[5]

Undeterred by 22 months in detention, Anwar was still head of ABIM and leading a broad coalition of non-governmental organizations against a proposed piece of legislation that would have tightened government control of voluntary associations, including religious and student organizations, trade unions and professional and consumer groups, when Dr. Mahathir recruited him as a candidate in 1982. Although Dr. Mahathir claimed later that he took Anwar in only to prevent a mischief-maker from joining the Islamic opposition, Anwar undoubtedly had star quality. He was an instant vote-winner and reinforced the impression that the relatively new Mahathir government was dynamic and serious about responding to the Islamic resurgence.

Toning down his radical rhetoric, Anwar became an obedient and "relatively quiet cog in the Mahathir administration machinery".[6] Mentor and protégé worked well together, with Anwar ready to do battle for some of Dr. Mahathir's favourite causes. As UMNO Youth leader, Anwar led the campaign to recover "Carcosa", the former home of British colonial rulers given to the British at independence, and articulately argued the case to reform the monarchy. Anwar was a member of the "AIDS" group — Anwar Ibrahim, Daim Zainuddin and Sanusi Junid — which provided crucial support for Dr. Mahathir against Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah in the battle for control of UMNO in 1987.[7]

In turn, Dr. Mahathir appointed Anwar to a succession of portfolios "tailor made to equip him to take over the top post".[8] After a year as a deputy minister attending mainly to Islamic affairs, Anwar was made minister for youth, culture and sports, going on to spend two years in the agriculture portfolio and five years in education before being named finance minister in 1991. His parallel rise through UMNO ranks was even more impressive. Narrowly capturing the UMNO Youth leadership only months after joining Dr. Mahathir in 1982, he was elected one of the party's three vice presidents six years later. In 1990, he secured the highest number of votes in the vice presidential contest, ranking him third in the party hierarchy, behind the president and deputy president.

A charismatic speaker and engaging conversationalist, Anwar sought to allay fears