Hardback: The West has called him recalcitrant, racist, anti-Semitic and arrogant. The developing world, however, sees former Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as a visionary champion, the rare leader who gave every Third World individual reason to stand tall.
Even his harshest critics cannot deny that, above all else, he gave some of the most neglected countries courage, showing the way to a more hopeful future but it was not without controversy.
His twenty-two years at the country's helm has been characterised as both dictatorial and inspiring. Few leaders have been able to turn an entire country from a predominantly agrarian economy into an industrial powerhouse - fewer still have been able to do so within a short two decades - that would become the seventeenth-largest trading nation in the world.
This remarkable achievement was not without controversy and Dr Mahathir's extraordinary vision and iron grip earned him both enemies as well as ardent admirers within and outside Malaysia. He has been described - typically and paradoxically - as a tyrannical dictator, a bête noire, as well as an inspiring, courageous and outspoken defender of the downtrodden, the Third World and moderate Islam.
At almost every turn Dr Mahathir rewrote the rules. This autobiography reveals the workings of that extraordinary mind, which has witnessed every major development in Malaysian history from the Second World War and the MacMichael Treaties, to independence, industrialisation and the making of modern Malaysia, culminating in the political and financial crises of the late 1990s and the challenges of the new millennium.
A Doctor in the House (2011) reveals hitherto unknown aspects of this intensely private, but publicly bold, statesman. It provides a clear and compelling narrative of modern Malaysia political history as seen through the eyes of one of its greatest shapers. It is neither an apology nor a defence, but a forceful, compelling and often exciting account of how and why Dr Mahathir achieved what he did in so short a time. With surgical precision, Dr Mahathir explores a nuanced history and scrutinises his own role in the shaping of modern Malaysia.
About the author: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003. Mahathir Mohamad was born in 1925 in Alor Setar, Malaysia. He was a doctor before becoming a politician with the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party, and ascended quickly from member of parliament to prime minister. His first book written before he became the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia - The Malay Dilemma (1970) - demanded affirmative action for indigenous Malays and equal status with Chinese-Malaysians, while also criticizing Malays’ “economic backwardsness.” He remains an active political figure after his retirement and lives in Kuala Lumpur.
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