A Doctor in The House: A Memoir of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (7 page)

They make, for example, disparaging remarks about Malaysia’s affirmative action programme and express their disgust over positive discrimination in favour of the Malays and other indigenous people over the Chinese and the Indians. They do not seem to realise the shallowness of this analysis, nor how ill-qualified they themselves are to offer such criticisms. When the British ruled Malaya, they reserved for themselves exclusive rights to jobs in the administration and allocated vast tracts of forest land to be cleared for their rubber estates and tin mines. They have apparently forgotten how they set aside select enclaves for their residences. They have forgotten how even Sultans, the Rulers of the Malay states in whose names they governed, were not allowed to enter their exclusive clubs. There was only one basis for all this unrelenting discrimination: an assumed and false notion of inherent racial superiority. Since then, they have not changed much. They may have retreated from Malaysia but they continue to give unwanted counsel and to forcibly spread their ideas, thoughts and systems.

History is but a cluster of memories and memory is selective. The same people who hasten to chastise us today forget that Malaysia’s racial problems were caused by their greed in wanting to extract the wealth of the country without taking any serious responsibility for its economic development or for the welfare of its people. They allowed unlimited numbers of Chinese and Indians into the Malay states until there were more immigrants in the population of the Peninsula than Malays. If Britain had allowed Chinese and Indian immigrants in until they made up 40 per cent of its own population, what would have happened to British workers and their unions? Britain would no longer be the land of the English, Scots and Welsh. Without discrimination, the diligent and skilful Chinese and Indians would have filled up the senior posts in government, run all the businesses and shops, and the original natives would work as drivers and gardeners of the immigrants. The British would certainly not allow into Britain the massive immigration that they permitted into Malaya under their rule. Even now, with only a small part of their population made up of Indians, Chinese and other non-Europeans, they feel uncomfortable. They have many more ugly race riots on their record than we do.

Their Government makes a pretence of being liberal and non-racist. Here and there, one finds the odd Asian customs officer, Member of Parliament and town mayor. But obviously they are restricting the immigration of Asians. Jews and Europeans are welcome but Asians and Africans are subjected to unwritten quotas. The ethnic Europeans will be entitled to criticise Malaysia, the Malays and our affirmative action policies only after they have allowed the free immigration of a few hundred million Chinese, Indians and Africans into their countries. When they themselves only barely outnumber all these immigrants, we should see what tune they will sing: whether they will go on criticising us for what we have done or whether they will do as we did.

The British encouraged the Chinese to immigrate and move to Singapore to provide the economic base and manpower for British trade and commercial activities. By 1963, three-quarters of Singapore’s 3.5 million inhabitants were Chinese. Historically and geographically, however, Singapore was a part of 
Tanah Melayu
. In other parts of the world, when the lands of indigenous people were taken over by latecomers and immigrants, the locals would fight bloody, prolonged wars to reclaim their birthright. We see the evidence of this in Northern Ireland, Palestine and several African colonies. But in the case of Singapore, it did not happen. The Chinese immigrants swamped the indigenous Malays who became an insignificant minority in a majority Chinese state. Singapore’s admission into Malaysia raised the possibility that a very aggressive non-Malay Singapore might attempt to dominate Malaysia. During the short period that Singapore was in Malaysia (1963-1965), this is precisely what its leader Lee Kuan Yew, now Minister Mentor of Singapore, tried to do. Eventually, Singapore had to be excluded. This is the Malay way. Rather than live in acrimony, the Malays simply asked the Singaporeans to leave peacefully.

Ethnic Europeans have ignored the relatively gentle way in which the Malays deal with racial differences. Yet the Europeans surely cannot have forgotten how they themselves dealt with native Americans, the Carib people in the Caribbean, Australian aborigines, and Indians. They should also remember that in order to achieve their preferred notions of equality in the past, thousands were killed in the French and Russian revolutions. The killing and brutality did not stop when the revolutions were over. The Malaysian way may seem unfair to some but it is important to note that, in our growth and development, lives were not sacrificed nor vast properties expropriated. Instead we enlarged the economic cake so that all might get a bigger slice than they had before, and so that the biggest slice could be given to the less fortunate, provided they were ready to work for it. The result, plain for all to see, is a stable country with robust economic growth. Even during the Asian financial crisis Malaysia experienced no racial violence, as there was in neighbouring countries. For this Malaysia gets little credit from its European critics. When they preach their doctrines of equality and fairness to me, I remind imperialists that they never treated their colonial subjects as equals and were rarely fair. So their dislike for me is intense. I am branded a dictator. If my name is mentioned at all, it is followed with insinuations of cronyism and references to the jailing of one of my deputies.

It is the negatives that they see and imagine, not our positive achievements. The great change, the vast and progressive social transformation that turned a poverty-stricken former colony into the Malaysia of today simply does not rate a polite mention. Ethnic European writers, journalists and officials utter hardly a word about the obvious capacity of the Malays as politicians and administrators capable of developing an entire country. Any rare mention of this achievement is prefaced by disparaging remarks about control of the Press, authoritarian rule, and political interference with the judiciary.

Most Malays are reluctant to offend others. They hide their frustration and anger over their humiliation by foreigners. I do not. In this respect I may not be completely Malay. I have learnt the frankness of foreigners and employ it in my dealings with them. I am no longer, like so many Malays, too shy to defend myself and my interests, or too polite to uphold my dignity against crassness and vulgarity. I have learnt their ways and they must pay the price for my having learnt the lessons they taught me so well.

British notions of racial superiority seem to have left their mark in all territories they once held. Once when I flew alone from Australia to Fiji, I was seated at the back of the B747 among South Sea islanders and Indian Australians. There was not a single white passenger at the back of the plane. It could not have been accidental that they were all seated in front. But on my return flight, the seating was very different. I was with members of the Committee of the Commonwealth Association, some of whom were white. It is hard to believe that it was mere coincidence that our seats were in front, where there were no South Sea islanders. The White Australia policy has officially been discarded but remnants of it still remain as demonstrated by the Cronulla incident of December 2005, when beachgoers with Arab features were attacked by white hooligans at the seaside in Sydney.

At the opposite end of the spectrum of criticism, I was once castigated by an Australian writer for censuring my own race and angering them. A Malay, he asserted, would not do this. He is, by and large, right. But I have learnt that in order to be heard on the global stage, different rules apply and you have to play by them. The rules of that game have required me to have the courage to speak up and not care too much about pleasing people, even those of my own race, when I speak my mind and say what I think I must. At times one must speak frankly, and without niceties, even to one’s fellow Malays. To reach them one must sometimes deliver a small shock, just to seize their attention. I have never wanted to lull the Malays into self-satisfaction and complacency. If one heaps accolades on people and say they are adept and able, when in fact they are not, they will make no effort to improve themselves and to rise to challenges. They will have no motivation or incentive to do so. A stern but caring rebuke can provide that motivation.

One simply cannot say all is well when it is not, when things are far from perfect. The NEP has largely been a success, and an impressive one. Today, many Malays have become successful in business and in the professions, and the Malay middle class has grown considerably. That said, when one considers the many opportunities made available to them, there ought to be a bigger percentage of successful Malays in our society by now. And there would have been, had they been prepared to work harder. I am personally ashamed when I hear of incidents in which Malays do not pay their debts, when they abuse the trust people place in them, when they sell the permits, licences and contracts made available to them by the Government through the NEP. Sadly, while the NEP has done much good to those who were ready to make an effort to realise the possibilities it offered, it has also created a disabling culture of entitlement among many other Malays with less wholesome values and motivations. So, while the NEP has produced a number of Malays with good ethical values, many more have been weakened by the privileges that come with positive discrimination. I fear for our coming generations. I worry that the children of those who have made it good will take the policy for granted and never learn to be intellectually and economically self-reliant. At the risk of being more unpopular, I will continue to press, goad and cajole them with the idea of making them stand tall.

I believe firmly in leadership by example. In my own code of behaviour, I make a point of refusing typical Malay stereotypes by practising the values which I want the Malays to adopt. For instance, I have often been asked where I get my energy. The general perception is that Malays are incapable of working hard. To correct this notion, throughout my 22 years as Prime Minister, I never took the full leave I was entitled to. Returning from visits abroad, I would go back to the office the same day. My working hours were longer than those of most government employees and Ministers. I did not play golf, I seldom watched such games as football or badminton and I rode horses only once a week. What drove me was the simple fact that I enjoyed working. When I was Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister, what I looked forward to most was seeing the results of my ideas, policies and directives taking shape: to see what I had glimpsed in my imagination become reality.

When I saw how the trainees, who went through programmes facilitated by the Look East Policy
[11]
 were sought after, I was gratified. I saw that this new generation of Malaysians did not display the usual diffidence. I saw how highly regarded they became outside Malaysia. I had to work hard myself in order to impress on everyone, the Malays in particular, the virtue of hard work. They had to be made to understand that this was the only way to succeed in life and develop the country. I am always in a hurry to see results. This is uncommon for a Malay. If only our whole community would do this, success would be the natural outcome. And the harder you work, the earlier you get to see results. There are many reasons, of course, for my intense drive. After closely studying the history of Malaya I recognise how greatly the industriousness of the Chinese and Indians has contributed to Malaysia’s remarkable success.
 

In commerce Malay acumen and work ethics leave much to be desired. They do not seem to realise that prompt repayment of loans and creditworthiness are prerequisites for commercial growth. Many borrow money for business purposes but use only half the loan for genuine business activities, effectively doubling their interest rate. With half the capital, it is difficult to make enough to repay the whole loan. When this happens, they have no choice but to cut corners and deliver inferior work. They then lose the trust of their customers, banks and subcontractors. They get blacklisted and all other Malays get tarred with the same brush. A petrol service operator I once met invested his cash earnings in another business. That business failed and he was unable to pay for the stock of oil he had obtained on credit. After he failed to pay several times, the supplier started demanding cash payments. The operator had no more cash and could not raise another loan from his bank. He finally lost his service station business. I got to know about this because he appealed to me directly to instruct the oil company to let him continue operating the station. When I made enquiries about his case, I found that he had not been paying for his petrol supply. It appears he was not the only one who did this. Because of a few bad eggs, Malay service station operators must now pay upfront in cash for their supply of oil. These are market forces, pure and simple.

The reputation of small Malay contractors has been blighted in the same way by incidents involving the construction of school computer laboratories. These were meant to be simple buildings wired for computers. Instead of building the laboratories themselves, the contractors sold their contracts to other contractors, who then sold the same contracts for upfront money to yet another set of contractors. This process devolved until the profit margin became negative and the contract was no longer viable. The final contractor then tried to construct the laboratories using inferior materials and, in some instances, by not paying suppliers and subcontractors. The result was either failure to complete the projects or the collapse of the building before it was even used. This problem was repeatedly highlighted in the Press and Malay contractors got a blanket reputation for being unethical and irresponsible. The reason why these things happen can be explained in one word: greed. It is the desire to get rich quickly without doing anything to deserve the wealth.