A Doctor in The House: A Memoir of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (128 page)

Adat
 The customs and traditions of Malay etiquette. It also refers to customary law, for example 
adat perpatih
, which is the code of matrilineal law found in Negeri Sembilan.

Agong
 
Formally styled “Duli Yang Maha Mulia Yang di-Pertuan Agong”, the Agong, or Paramount Ruler, is elected for a five-year term by the Conference of Rulers of the states of Malaysia. The conference excludes Penang, Malacca, Sabah and Sarawak, which are ruled by Federally-appointed Governors rather than hereditary monarchs. Malaysia is one of the world’s last elective monarchies.

Approved Permits
 
An “approved permit” or AP refers to the system by which imports into Malaysia are controlled. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry issues individual APs for the import of a single unit of a given item, e.g. a car.

Aya
 In Hindi, originally a nursemaid or waiting-maid. Also spelt
aia
or
ayah.

Baju Melayu
 Traditional Malay formal attire for men. The
baju Melayu
generally consists of a long-sleeved shirt with a stiff collar known as a
cekak musang
(fox’s leash), trousers made from an identical fabric and colour, and a
kain samping
made from
songket-
or sarong-cloth and worn as a sarong. Regional variations exist.

Barisan Nasional
 
Malay for the National Front coalition. The BN was formed in 1973 as the successor to the Alliance Party and has in this way formed the Federal Government in Malaya and Malaysia since 1957. There are 14 parties in the coalition today, which is led by the original Alliance partners UMNO, the MCA and the MIC.

Barisan Alternatif
The so-called “alternative front” that opposition parties formed in 1998 against the
Barisan Nasional.
Its members were PAS, the DAP,
KeADILan
(later to become PKR), and Parti Rakyat Malaysia. The coalition began to fall apart in 2001 when the DAP withdrew. The Barisan Alternatif has been superseded by the
Pakatan Rakyat.

Berjasa
The acronym for Barisan Jemaah Islamiyah Se-Malaysia (the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Front), founded in 1977 by a group of breakaway PAS members. The party did well in the 1978 General Election, winning 11 state seats in Kelantan, but faded away after that.

Bendehara
The word was once the formal title of, and also meant, prime minister or commander-in-chief of the royal court. Today it is a royal title in a number of states: for example, the second son of the Sultan of Johor, and the Raja next in line to the heir apparent of Perak.

Bumiputera
 
A term used to refer to Malays and other indigenous groups in Malaysia. It is formed from two ancient Sanskrit words meaning “Prince of the Soil”.

Ceramah
 
Political (or religious) speeches, often of the haranguing kind and an obligatory feature of election campaigns. The word once meant “garrulous” in Malay.

DAP
 
The Democratic Action Party, formed in 1965. Originally a branch of the Singapore People’s Action Party, the DAP came into being when its members chose to remain in Malaysia after Singapore left the Federation.

Daulat
 
A Ruler’s sovereign power, similar to the Divine Right of European monarchs.

Datuk, Dato’
 
See
Malay Honours Encik
The Malay equivalent of “Mister”.

Federated Malay States
 
Formed in 1895 by the British for “administrative purposes”, the FMS comprised Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang. Each was obliged to have a British Resident whose purpose was to “advise” the Sultan—but they effectively possessed full political and administrative power. The FMS was superseded by the Malayan Union in 1946. See also
Unfederated Malay States
and
Straits Settlements.

Gerakan
 
Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (Malaysian People’s Movement Party), was founded in 1968 originally as an opposition party. It joined the 
Barisan Nasional
 
in 1972.

Haram
 
Arabic for “forbidden” and applies to anything or any matter legally forbidden by Islamic law.

Hudud
 
The section of Islamic (or Shariah) law that applies to section of Islamic penal law dealing with fixed punishments.

Imam
 
Prayer leader in the mosque, or, for Shi’ites, a Muslim leader.

Japanese Occupation
 
The Japanese military occupation of Malaya and North Borneo (modern-day Sabah) and Sarawak began in 1941 with the invasion of Borneo and ended in 1945 when the last of the invasion force surrendered.

Kampung
 
Malay for “village”, though many of these are today modern towns and the names of these towns often reflect humbler origins.

KeADILan
 
A political party formed by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim after his arrest. See
 
Parti Keadilan Rakyat.

Kitab
 A word of Arabic origin referring to religious commentaries in Islam.

Malay Honours
 
Malaysia, as a elective monarchy with 14 individual heads of state, has a very complex system of honours. Sultans and Governors award the title Dato’, Dato’ Seri (and other variants including Datuk Seri Panglima and Dato’ Amar), while the Agong awards the titles Datuk (
sic
), Tan Sri and Tun.

For the purposes of this memoir, all Dato’ and their variants are spelt uniformly as Datuk with the exception of Dato’ Onn Jaafar, whose name appears so often with that particular spelling that anything else would appear strange.

MARA
 
Majlis Amanah Rakyat, or the Public Trust Council, formed in 1966 to help raise the status of
Bumiputera
especially in the areas of business and industry.

MCA
 
The Malayan (later Malaysian) Chinese Association, a founding member of the Alliance Party and later the Barisan Nasional coalition. It was established in 1949.

MCP
 
The Malayan Communist Party (also known as The Communist Party of Malaya or CPM) was founded in 1930. It was outlawed in 1948 and took up arms against the Colonial Government, provoking an emergency that lasted until 1989.

Menteri Besar
 
Literally “great minister”, the Menteri Besar is the chief minister of a state ruled by a Sultan. In states ruled by a Governor the English term (or its Malay equivalent Ketua Menteri) is used.