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

to find the able and honest Rahim made life difficult for those who had in the past been able to acquire timber concessions through high-level local patronage.[16] After the sultan became king in 1979, his son, who was acting as regent in his absence, refused to sign money bills. With dozens of bills awaiting royal assent and important development projects threatened, Rahim finally quit in November 1981, by which time Dr. Mahathir had taken over as premier.

Having been involved in the tussle with the Pahang throne for more than three years, Dr. Mahathir felt the sting of the government's retreat. In case anyone missed the significance of Rahim's departure, the regent reminded them by signing the delayed Pahang bills almost immediately. Other instances of royal recalcitrance also embarrassed and disturbed Dr. Mahathir. His government had to bail out one ruler who lost heavily at gaming tables abroad.[17] The sultans of Perak and Johore, asserting themselves as head of religion in their states, clashed with the federal government over the date for the end of Ramadan. By determining the timing locally and using a different method, they ended up with a fasting month one day longer or shorter than the rest of the country, causing confusion among Malays and disrupting holiday arrangements.

That Dr. Mahathir would respond forcefully to royal abuses was a matter of how and when, not if. He had never had much sympathy for the rulers. While writing as C.H.E. Det in his student days, Dr. Mahathir had warned them that too often they were on the wrong side of history. In 1949, he criticized the Conference of Rulers for rejecting UMNO's recommendation that a Malay commoner be appointed deputy high commissioner of the Federation of Malaya. The rulers' objection on the grounds that it would lower their dignity, he said, pitted them against "the people". The hitherto unquestioned devotion of Malays to their rulers was at stake: Unless the rulers changed their minds, "there is no doubt that they will lose, perhaps forever, the confidence and loyalty of their subjects".[18] Elsewhere, Dr. Mahathir also wrote of the "new force" of Malayan democracy that was likely to eclipse feudalism.[19]

In The Malay Dilemma in 1970, Dr. Mahathir insinuated that the rulers in earlier centuries were more concerned about feathering their own nests than helping the Malays obtain a fair deal from visiting Indian, Arab and Chinese traders. He said the rulers appropriated "a certain portion of goods belonging to their subjects" and exchanged them for imported items, enabling them to amass "vast amounts of clothing and jewellery". He also said the Chinese merchants' "habit of giving expensive gifts to the ruling class ingratiated them with all levels of authority", facilitating a greater influx of Chinese merchant-adventurers and allowing a system of Chinese retail shops to penetrate "every nook and corner" and "become an established feature of life in the old Malay sultanates".[20]

In other historical references, Dr. Mahathir held the rulers partly responsible for the Malays being dispossessed and colonized for "400 years". He said, "There was always a monarch who was prepared to help a foreign power for personal gain", noting that Singapore "came into being because one monarch" handed over "that part of the Johore empire".[21] And he never forgave the rulers for agreeing to British plans for the objectionable Malayan Union. Self-interested political groups were trying to disrupt Malay unity, he wrote in the 1970s, "Just as at one time monarchs without thrones were prepared to betray their people in their greed for power...".[22]

In 1983, Dr. Mahathir — and every other politician in Malaysia — could see more trouble coming in the form of the new king to be chosen in early 1984. Under the rotating system, it would be either Perak's or Johore's turn as all the other states had occupied the throne once. Both had sultans who were usually referred to as strong-willed, a euphemism for being prepared to ignore political advice when it suited them. Sultan Idris Shah of Perak had seniority, having assumed the throne earlier than his southern counterpart, but indicated he might decline the post as he had done twice before. He was insisting on constitutional changes that would allow him to remain Sultan of Perak while he was king, which the federal government said was out of the question.[23]

The alternative, having Sultan Mahmood Iskandar of Johore installed as Malaysia's eighth king, filled the political establishment with greater foreboding. It was not just that he was from a family with a history of defying the central government, his grandfather having ridiculed the idea of independence for the Malays in 1955. He also had a long record of criminal behaviour, exuded an aura of violence and inspired fear.[24] When a lawyer overtook the sultan's car on the road in 1972, he had the man stopped and beaten.[25] On separate occasions, he physically assaulted members of the Pahang and Trengganu royal families, apparently in the belief they were impersonating members of his family.[26] He once ordered a policeman who had offended him confined to a dog kenne1.[27] In the most controversial case, the sultan was convicted in 1977 of culpable homicide for the shooting of a man he said he thought was a smuggler. He was sentenced to six months imprisonment, but pardoned by his father and never spent a day in jai1.[28] Although he was the eldest son, he was removed as successor by his father in 1961. In mysterious circumstances, his father restored him to the line of succession on his deathbed at the age of 86.

As if the prospect of a wilful and politicized king were not enough, the government received reports that Sultan Mahmood Iskandar had boasted that he would, in effect, stage a coup d'etat after he was enthroned. He told a gathering that once elected king, he would declare a state of emergency unilaterally, take over with the help of the army and throw out all the politicians.[29]

According to an associate, Dr. Mahathir "had long nursed an ambition