A Doctor in The House: A Memoir of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (119 page)

The whole world, I said, had changed. The principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of countries was now disregarded by the powerful ethnic European countries. We in Malaysia must therefore learn to know the Europeans well as they would continue to play a major role in our lives. The United Nations, I pointed out, would not be able to help us. I also warned against the kind of hedonism spread by the Europeans through their media and culture.

Internally we would face challenges, and the younger generation would find difficulty in race relations. Islam had not been taught properly. We had to also remember that we were not yet rich and should not behave as if we were. While we would like to see our people earn more, this would have to be based upon hard work and greater productivity. As for UMNO, its performance would largely depend on its members. Leadership struggles would only weaken it. Since its founding, there had been at least three groups that had broken away from the party: Dato’ Onn Jaafar’s Independence of Malaya Party (succeeded by his Party Negara), Tengku Razaleigh’s Semangat 46 and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s Parti Keadilan. PAS, too, was formed by a group that had splintered from UMNO, but such splits were unproductive. The purpose of contests in the party should be about finding good leaders, not to carry on quarrels and further personal ambitions. Once a party election is over, the losers should close ranks with those who had won. This would be the conduct of those who really understood democracy. I again urged the party and its members to hold fast to the true teachings of Islam. Differing interpretations of Islam, I had always believed, made Muslims quarrelsome.

Finally, I reminded members that UMNO was not just any party, but the ruling party of Malaysia. This imposed a heavy responsibility on all its members and leaders, who had to be prepared to make sacrifices. Its struggles were for the wellbeing of all and not any one individual. Ultimately, everyone gains from the growth of the nation. People should remember that there would always be fewer positions in the party and government than the number of people aspiring to them. I thanked people for their support and prayed to Allah to save His people from evil influences, enabling them to achieve success and become models to all Muslims in the world.

I was calm throughout. Though many expected me to, this time I did not shed a single tear. Rereading my speech now, I feel I did not do justice to my predecessors. I mentioned Tunku Abdul Rahman’s contribution only once, but, whatever my occasional, well-publicised differences with him, the Tunku had contributed so much that it made my own task easier. I also owed much to Tun Razak Hussein, who literally rescued me from the political wilderness and influenced Tun Hussein Onn into choosing me as his deputy. There were others too who had supported me who I should have mentioned, but the speech was already too long and I could not thank them all. I now regret my priorities in that speech. My main concern at the time was to impart my final advice to members, to UMNO and the people as a whole. Once I was no longer Prime Minister, I might not be able to do so as effectively. Those present gave me prolonged applause and a standing ovation. I was touched by this, and it made me feel that all the 22 years of toil and tears had been worthwhile. In the light of everything that has happened since then however, I wonder now what the applause and standing ovation were really worth .

On 21 June, the last day of the Assembly, I delivered my closing speech where I again said corruption was the bane of the Malays. This was because they loved to take 
jalan yang mudah
, or the easy way out. Their Rajas in the past had lost their lands, even their sovereignty, because of their desire to get material things quickly and without great effort. Corruption, I warned, would destroy the Malays, cost them their independence and would enslave them.

For a while, I was amused by the new title that UMNO members bestowed upon me. They called me YDK for 
Yang di Kasihi
, or The Beloved One, but I good-humouredly told them that while I appreciated it, the same love had to be shown to the incoming President and Prime Minister. Looking back I feared I did not do a good job in that last speech. By nightfall, when the General Assembly ended, I was exhausted. I flew to Langkawi intending to rest, but I could not resist checking out the new marina at Telaga Harbour and the work on the second phase of the Perdana Gallery, where all the official gifts I had received as Prime Minister were to be displayed for public viewing. The gifts were not given to me in my personal capacity so I did not consider them mine.

Perhaps I should have left the presentation of the 2004 Budget and the mid-term review of the Eighth Malaysia Plan to the incoming Prime Minister. But I presented it myself, believing—perhaps unwisely—that after I left office it would not see many changes. When I delivered my Budget speech on 12 September, I dealt at length with every aspect of development, as I wanted to warn the country of the challenges ahead.

After all my years in office, I realised that we could not always depend on foreign investments, a fact which I stated in my speech. We had to get our own people to save and invest, and for this there should be new incentives. The manufacturing sector would continue to be the primary contributor to the growth of the economy, which was expected to expand at 7.2 per cent in 2004. The day before I stepped down, I presented the mid-term review of the Eighth Malaysia Plan.

On 29 October, the Chief Secretary Tan Sri Samsudin Osman came to see me at the Ministry of Finance to tell me that the Agong had decided to confer on me the 
Seri Maharaja Mangku Negara
, the highest award for a civilian, which carries the title “Tun”. At first I said I would not accept it. Long ago, when I was first offered an award carrying the title “Dato’”, I had given an excuse and turned it down. I had always felt that awards should not be automatically given to holders of posts. Rather, they should be given after you performed well in office, when a careful assessment could then be made of your contribution. If, after some time, you are still considered worthy, you may then be given the award.

I tried to apply this principle when I was in office, but the general feeling was that as soon as an officer was appointed to a certain post, he should be given the award and the title that was considered to be consistent with the dignity of that position. So, while we have kept some control over prices in the economy, we have suffered runaway status inflation in Malaysia. When I was still Prime Minister the award of a Tunship was offered to me several times, but I had turned down all those offers. However, when Samsudin urged me to accept the award, I changed my mind as I did not want to seem unappreciative and disrespectful of the Agong.

As the time approached for me to step down, I grew concerned about whether Tun Abdullah would choose Datuk Seri Najib Razak as Deputy Prime Minister. I felt that I had been a little unfair to Najib—who had won the most number of votes for Vice-President—when I chose Tun Abdullah. So I wanted to be sure that Najib would take the number two spot, even though the appointment was the prerogative of the Prime Minister. In one of my impromptu speeches before I stepped down, I said openly that I hoped Tun Abdullah would choose Najib. The newspapers reported this prominently, reminding me that the choice of Deputy Prime Minister was Tun Abdullah’s. When Najib was finally appointed as Deputy Prime Minister, I was relieved.

In the meantime, large advertisements began to appear in the local papers, thanking me and paying tribute to my 22 years as Prime Minister. This is an especially Malaysian practice. Full-page advertisements to thank and congratulate the Agong, Sultans, Prime Ministers and even Ministers on special occasions are common. State governments, companies and individuals all do this. UMNO state committees and divisions also place such full-page displays to congratulate and thank the President. Politically, the advertisements are all-too-often empty formality. While some people who placed such displays to thank me were doubtless sincere, I now realise they did not reflect real sentiment. Malays often like to 
melepaskan batuk di tangga
 (which translates literally as, “cough at the foot of the stairs”), to let you know that they are there and to get some credit for having been around. How reliable they are is not easily assessed. For myself, I saw the practice of placing such advertisements as an unnecessary waste of money. But the newspapers were unhappy when I suggested that the practice be stopped as it was a good source of income for them.

For the new Prime Minister, I had only goodwill. I chose him after UMNO had made him eligible by electing him as one of its Vice-Presidents. He was my choice because he was older and appeared to be free from corruption (he was popularly known as “Mr Clean”), even though I was not sure at first which of the three Vice-Presidents had won the most votes. Remembering that I myself had been the Vice-President with the smallest number of votes when Tun Hussein chose me as Deputy Prime Minister, I did not think that I should use votes as the only criterion. Tun Abdullah was 64 when he took office, which made him the oldest man to become Prime Minister in our history—I had been the oldest before that, at 56. I thought that Tun Abdullah’s age would translate into experience and ability.

I did wonder: should anything go wrong with the country’s progress, would I be able to refrain from interfering? But I had given a promise that I would not interfere once I stepped down so I did not dwell on the matter. I had made sure that the Government and the economy were in good shape. I had stayed on to make certain we recovered from the regional financial crisis, and to resolve the problem of Anwar. I also led the party in the 1999 General Election and won with the usual two-thirds majority, so I had nothing to worry about. I really could not foresee how drastically things would change just a few short years later.

ENDNOTES

[
1
] Tan Sri Aishah Ghani was one of the most prominent women in UMNO politics, serving as a Member of Parliament from 1962 to 1986 and as Social Welfare Minister from 1973 to 1984.
 

[
2
] Tan Sri Saleha Ali, Hasmah’s sister, was an advocate for the rights of women and the disabled, a politician, and the first Malay woman to attend the London School of Economics.
 

[
3
] The key points of the Eighth Malaysia Plan were to: shift to a knowledge-based growth strategy; speed up the transformation of the agricultural, manufacturing and services sectors and; perpetuate the equitable distribution of national wealth to strengthen socioeconomic stability.
 

In October 2003, just a few weeks before I stepped down from office, I gave a speech at the 10th summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) that provoked the West, and the US in particular, into condemning me as anti-Semitic. We were playing host to the conference that year—I was the OIC Chairman and I wanted Malaysia to breathe life into the organisation. The summit was also the first formal meeting of Muslim leaders since the events of 11 September 2001, and my aim was to alert its members to the situation Muslims were now facing as the “war on terrorism” unfolded.

In my speech, I said that Muslims had to learn from the Jews, who had overcome centuries of oppression to become one of the most powerful peoples in the world. I quote: “They (the Jews) survived 2,000 years of pogroms not by hitting back, but by thinking. They invented and successfully promoted socialism, communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong, so they may enjoy equal rights with others. With these they have now gained control of the most powerful countries and they, this tiny community, have become a world power. We cannot fight them through brawn alone. We must use our brains also.”

This is precisely what the Muslims in the US should do to counter the powerful Jewish lobby. When they strategise, Muslims can be a force to be reckoned with. It is said that the Jewish lobby is so mighty that when they vote, they can determine who will become the US President. During the 2004 US presidential election, I had written to the Muslims in the US not to vote for Bush. It was not because his opponent was any better. I just wanted the Muslims to show that they too could be a force in US elections. But the Muslims divided their votes between the two candidates and they failed to be relevant in US politics.

I used the Jews as role models for Muslim countries, who for too long have fought among themselves instead of seeking the unity that Islam enjoins upon them. Many of us Muslims are oppressed and humiliated by others but because of our disunity we have allowed this oppression and have often aided the enemies of Muslims to kill and wage war against other Muslims.

I tackled this question in my speech: “From being a single 
ummah
 we have allowed ourselves to be divided into numerous sects, 
mazhabs
[1]
 and 
tarikats,
[2]
 each more concerned with claiming to represent true Islam rather than accepting that we all belong to the 
ummah
, the Muslim community. We fail to notice that our detractors and enemies do not care whether we are true Muslims or not, whether we belong to one sect or another. To them we are all Muslims, followers of a religion and a Prophet who they declare promotes terrorism, and we are all their sworn enemies. They will attack and kill us, invade our lands, bring down our governments whether we are Sunni or Shiite or Wahabbi or whatever. And we aid and abet them by attacking and weakening each other, and sometimes by doing their bidding, acting as their proxies to attack fellow Muslims. We try to bring down our governments through violence, succeeding only in weakening and impoverishing our countries.”
 

There was good reason for me to be harsh. Muslims make up 1.3 billion of the world’s population and yet largely remain a backward community. There are some who would have us believe that only the afterlife matters, that it is Islamic to be poor, to suffer and to be oppressed in this world. These Muslims say all they have to do to be good Muslims is to wear certain garments and perform certain rituals and the joys of heaven will be theirs. They readily disregard whole sections of the Quran.