A Doctor in The House: A Memoir of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (91 page)

I took some time to recover from my coronary bypass operation in 1989, travelling overseas to recuperate. Eventually, I regained my strength and was ready to face new political challenges.

By this time UMNO Baru, which had been registered after the court declared the original UMNO illegal in 1988, was succeeding in gaining support from most former UMNO members. The party’s nationwide divisional structure had also been resuscitated.

In Sabah, however, the Sabah People’s United Front, or Berjaya,
[1]
 together with its Barisan Nasional partners, had lost ignominiously in the 1986 elections. Politics in Sabah had always been complicated. While the majority of Sabahans were Muslims and keen to ally themselves with the Federal Government, the Chinese-Kadazandusuns had never really felt well-disposed towards the Peninsula. This created a fractured political landscape, which was made more difficult by Sabah politicians frequently switching parties. This was so prevalent that it became a trademark of Sabah politics and continues to be a problem today.
 

The United Sabah National Organisation, or USNO, led by the state’s first governor Tun Mustafa Harun, was allied with Tunku Abdul Rahman and UMNO. For a very long time Tun Mustafa was the single most powerful politician in Sabah. Once he was installed as Chief Minister in 1967, he ruled with a strong hand and was consistently able to deliver 16 seats to Barisan Nasional at every general election. Over time, however, Tun Mustafa showed less regard for the Federal Government, especially after the Tunku stepped down as Prime Minister. By then he had become extremely rich and did not hesitate to use his wealth. Once, during a visit to Kuala Lumpur, it was said that he sent back his plane all the way to Sabah to fetch his violin.

My relationship with Tun Mustafa was not good, especially after I criticised the Tunku in 1969. During a secret meeting, he demanded that I apologise to the Tunku, but I refused. Tun Mustafa and his party were eventually defeated in 1976 by Berjaya, the party Datuk Seri Harris Salleh had formed with the support of the Kadazandusuns, including Datuk Seri Joseph Pairin Kitingan. That victory put Harris in power and he became Sabah’s next Chief Minister. He brought a lot of development to the state, including its island of Labuan, which, with his agreement, became Malaysia’s second Federal Territory in 1984.

One of the reasons why Tun Mustafa lost the people’s support was because he had become authoritarian. Harris made the same mistake and eventually his party was defeated by Pairin’s Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS)
[2]
 or United Sabah Party in the 1985 elections.
 

I had been quite close to Harris but I was suspicious of Pairin because I did not have any clear indication as to his loyalty to the Barisan Nasional. Every time I visited Sabah when he was
Chief Minister I felt as if I was in Opposition territory. To get him to commit to the Barisan Nasional I promised Sabah its own university should our coalition win there. I also took Pairin on my trip to South Korea and talked with him at length about Sabah and its future. As Chief Minister, he had registered his objection to Harris’s consent to Labuan becoming a Federal Territory as he saw it as part of Sabah’s domain which should be enhanced, not diminished. To emphasise his claim, he once held a state cabinet meeting on Pulau Layang Layang, an island in the South China Sea reclaimed by the Federal Government, to indicate that it too was a part of Sabah. He dwelt upon the 20 issues
[3]
 which Sabah claimed had remained unsettled since it had joined Malaysia. I expected trouble from him so I had to consolidate elsewhere.
 

Beginning with Johor, I visited all the states to strengthen UMNO and Barisan Nasional. The failure of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah to unseat me had meanwhile convinced the extremists and my detractors that I could not be easily overthrown. After Ops Lalang, racial issues were no longer played up as before by the Press and non-governmental organisations, even though most of the detainees had been released.

A general election had to be held by 1990 and while I did not expect to do well, I still believed that the Barisan Nasional would get a two-thirds majority. In the midst of our preparations for the election, two former Prime Ministers passed away, Tun Hussein Onn in May and Tunku Abdul Rahman in December. Tun Hussein died in America while undergoing medical treatment, while the Tunku passed away at the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital. In accordance with their wishes, Tun Hussein was buried in the National Cemetery attached to the National Mosque, while the Tunku was interred in the Kedah Royal Mausoleum in Langgar, northeast of Alor Star.

Meanwhile, Pairin’s younger brother Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan began to agitate over the so-called 20 issues. A mercurial character, Jeffrey had a doctorate from Harvard University. He also harboured great political ambitions, but he was always backing the wrong people. He would jump from party to party without any qualms.

When he began to talk about the possible separation of Sabah from Malaysia, he was arrested and detained. After his release he supported the Barisan Nasional but was very disappointed when he was not made a Minister in the Sabah Government. Jeffrey currently supports Parti Keadilan Rakyat, the party which Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim created after his arrest.

When the 1990 elections were held, I went to Sabah to campaign, but the atmosphere there was not good despite my promise of a university for Sabah. On my return to Kuala Lumpur, as we were having a dinner at Angkasapuri (the national radio and television centre), the Minister of Information Tan Sri Mohamed Rahmat whispered into my ear that Pairin had pulled PBS out from Barisan Nasional. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah was delighted when PBS aligned itself with the Opposition coalition. It was yet another example of the political switching that happened so often in Sabah.

I hastily called a meeting of the UMNO Supreme Council, which decided immediately to set up UMNO in Sabah. Until then, it had been our policy not to undermine the pro-Barisan Nasional indigenous parties in Sabah and Sarawak by starting UMNO there; now, to counter PBS’s defection, we had to assert our presence in Sabah to maintain the Barisan Nasional’s position.

It was no easy task, but Tun Ghafar Baba, the Deputy President of UMNO, spent a considerable amount of time in Sabah organising our party divisions in all the constituencies. The response was good, but not good enough to help the Barisan Nasional to win enough state seats to form the Government of Sabah.

Although by polling day UMNO had been set up in the state, it could not contest the election because Pairin’s defection, and UMNO’s response to it, had occurred after nomination day. All UMNO could do was to support USNO, Tun Mustafa’s party. Berjaya, Harris’s party, fielded 48 candidates but did not win a single seat. USNO managed to win only 14 of the 48 state assembly seats. PBS, on the other hand, had a huge victory. Of the parliamentary seats, PBS won 14 and Barisan Nasional only six. It was by far the worst performance ever by Barisan Nasional in Sabah.

But in the Peninsula, the Barisan Nasional decisively defeated the Opposition coalition headed by Tengku Razaleigh’s Semangat 46. Pairin’s hope of remaining a part of the Federal Government was shattered—he had backed the wrong horse. By deserting Barisan Nasional, Pairin lost whatever leverage he once had with the Federal Government to develop Sabah, in particular to secure a university for his state. Realising that PBS would no longer enjoy Federal Government cooperation, many of its members began to desert the party.

In the Peninsula, the Barisan Nasional once again lost Kelantan. Tun Hussein had won back the state in 1978 when PAS split into two factions and many had thought that this sounded the death-knell for PAS. I thought differently and I turned out to be right. By 1990 Berjasa, the PAS splinter group, had lost ground and could win only one seat. The Barisan Nasional lost all the seats it contested, while PAS and Semangat 46 together won 38 seats. Kelantan was now to be ruled by a loose coalition between PAS and Semangat 46 under Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat as 
Menteri Besar
. Soon, however, cracks began to appear. Eventually, Semangat 46 was dissolved and its members as well as its leader Tengku Razaleigh rejoined UMNO. But resentment against Semangat 46 among UMNO members remained strong while many Semangat 46 members preferred to remain Opposition supporters.

Despite its losses in Sabah and Kelantan, the Barisan Nasional managed to maintain a two-thirds majority in Parliament. The strength of the Government had been restored, allowing us to concentrate on economic development and sustain the high growth rates from 1987 to 1997.

A new 
Malaysia Boleh
 (Malaysia Can Do It!) spirit seemed to take hold and coincide with this period of growth. The 
Malaysian Book of Records
 had also been started and people now tried to pull off unusual feats to get into it. This new competitive spirit, combined with the desire to show that Malaysians could do anything, generated much excitement in the country. Datuk Azhar Mansor sailed solo round the world; Datuk M. Magendren and Datuk N. Mohandas climbed Mount Everest; Datuk Abdul Malek Mydin swam across the English Channel; and Sharifah Mazlina Syed Abdul Kadir trekked 1,100 kilometres across Antarctica to the South Pole. She later also mounted an expedition to the North Pole. People cheered these plucky Malaysians and saw their achievements as, if not world-beating, at least world-class.

Despite this new determination, however, the fact remained that we were not achieving our NEP targets. It was now more than 20 years since we had launched the NEP, and it looked like we were still not going to achieve the goal of 30 per cent Bumiputera ownership of corporate wealth. Except for those in the professions, most Malays and other Bumiputera Malaysians remained far behind the other races.

Since the implementation of the NEP, the economic disparities between the Malays and the Chinese have actually widened further in absolute terms. That is simply because the nation’s wealth is now very much bigger and the 28 per cent difference in wealth between Malays and Chinese in 1970 was based on a smaller GDP. Today’s GDP is many times bigger and 40 per cent of this enlarged GDP that is owned by the Chinese would be much more in absolute terms than the 30 per cent share of the GDP they held in 1971. However, the Malays continued to lag behind and the disparity had increased. Malay leaders do not want to point this out as it would anger Malays. The Chinese would not like to highlight this fact either, as it would result in the Malays demanding for more effective policies from the Government to correct the imbalance.

I needed to extend the NEP but with Tengku Razaleigh in the Opposition and his party making substantial gains, a wrong move might have precipitated a crisis. Most Malays were obviously unhappy over the failure to realise the 30 per cent corporate wealth target and they did not accept that they themselves were largely responsible for the shortfall. Instead, they blamed the Government for not doing enough for them; they blamed the Chinese; they blamed everybody but themselves and their own inability to achieve or even attempt to attain new levels of competence and confidence.

By 1990 we had achieved just 20 per cent Bumiputera control of national corporate wealth, but largely through the various Government-operated unit trusts. Although this holding grew in absolute size, the rapid growth of the country’s economy meant that the wealth owned by Malays did not grow beyond 20 per cent. In fact, it shrank a little.

Increasing corporate wealth, or trying to do so, was one method we tried; providing educational opportunities was another. The huge number of Government scholarships dramatically increased the number of Bumiputera professionals. The number of Bumiputera doctors rose to about 40 per cent of the total, whereas before it had been only about five per cent. There was a similarly great increase in the number of Bumiputera engineers, architects, veterinarians, accountants, lawyers, hoteliers and in the other leading professions. Some became successful as developers, industrialists, fabricators and transport operators and a number of them, benefiting from the Government’s privatisation policy, became substantial entrepreneurs capable of competing with the non-Malays.

One area where the Bumiputera failed almost completely was in retail business. They did not seem to like this sector because they could not get rich quickly. Those who want to succeed in business must accept the need for hard work, long hours, regular habits and disciplined time management. Rather than enjoy all one’s profits today, one needs to accept delayed enjoyment and be prepared to invest some of the profits to grow the business in the hope of enjoying perhaps greater rewards at a later time. But again, the Malay attitude is not so much irrational as dominated by a short-term outlook. Short-term attractions seduce them away from the longer-term view. I believe that the roots of this outlook lie deep in Malay culture. Some Malays have become agents for Proton and operate petrol service stations, but apart from them, there are hardly any Malay retailers in urban areas. Our towns and cities, and certainly our commercial life, remain largely Chinese. The NEP failed to transform the basic character of Malaysian towns.

For my part I would have liked to stop the NEP and simply let the Bumiputera compete unaided, as standing on their own feet might have been exactly what they needed. But I feared that they would fail, and to allow them again to regress would be risky; to let the spectre of economic disparities once again rear its ugly head would be unforgivable. Most people remained very conscious of their race; if the situation that prevailed just before the 1969 riots was to recur, new racial clashes might easily be triggered.

Yet the non-Malays were watching the Government closely, and I felt sure that they would object violently if I extended the NEP. But if I did not, Tengku Razaleigh, PAS and the Malays might make an issue of it.