ISL WEEK 8 Biography Report Yang Amat Berbahagia Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad

4th Prime Minister of Malaysia In office 16 July 1981 31 October 2003 Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad (Jawi: ; pronounced [ma har bn mohamad] is a Malaysian politician who was the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia. He held the post for 22 years from 1981 to 2003, making him Malaysia's longest serving Prime Minister. His political career spanned almost 40 years. Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad is a Malay name; the name Mohamad is a patronymic, not a family name, and the person should be referred to by the given name, Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad. Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad was born in 10 July 1925 and raised in Alor Setar, Kedah. Mahathir was a hard-working school student. With schools closed during theJapanese

occupation of Malaya in World War II, he went into small business, first selling coffee and later pisang goreng (banana fritters) and other snacks. After the war, he graduated from secondary school with high marks and enrolled to study medicine at the King Edward VII College of Medicine in Singapore (now part of National University of Singapore). In college he met his future wife, Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, a fellow medical student. After Mahathir graduated, he worked as a doctor in government service before marrying Siti Hasmah in 1956 and returning to Alor Setar the following year to set up his own practice. He was the town's first Malay doctor, and a successful one. Mahathir had been politically active since the end of the Japanese occupation of Malaya, when he joined protests against the granting of citizenship to non-Malays under the short-lived Malayan Union. While at college he contributed to The Straits Times under the pseudonym "C.H.E. Det", and a student journal, in which he fiercely promoted Malay rights, such as restoring Malay as an official language. While practising as a doctor in Alor Setar, He became active in the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) ; by the time of the first general election for the independent state of Malaya in 1959, he was the chairman of the party in Kedah. Despite his prominence in UMNO, Mahathir was not a candidate in the 1959 election, ruling himself out following a disagreement with then Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. In the following general election in 1964, he was elected as the federal parliamentarian for the Alor Setar-based seat of Kota Setar Selatan. In the 1969 election, he lost his seat. By the end of the year he had been expelled from UMNO. When Tunku Abdul Rahman resigned, Tun Dr.Mahathir bin Mohamad reentered UMNO and parliament, and was promoted to the Cabinet. By 1976, he had risen to Deputy Prime Minister, and in 1981 was sworn in as Prime Minister after the resignation of his predecessor, Tun Hussein Onn. During Tun Dr.Mahathir bin Mohamad's tenure as Prime Minister, Malaysia experienced rapid modernisation and economic growth, and his government initiated a series of bold infrastructure projects. Mahathir initiated a series of major infrastructure

projects in the 1990s. One of the largest was the Multimedia Super Corridor, an area south of Kuala Lumpur, in the mould of Silicon Valley, designed to cater for the information technology industry. However, the project failed to generate the investment anticipated. Other Mahathir projects included the development of Putrajaya as the home of Malaysia's public service, and bringing a Formula One Grand Prix to Sepang. One of the most controversial developments was the BakunDam in Sarawak. The ambitious hydro-electric project was intended to carry electricity across the South China Sea to satisfy electricity demand in peninsular Malaysia. He was a dominant political figure, winning five consecutive general elections and seeing off all of his rivals for the leadership of UMNO. However, his accumulation of power came at the expense of the independence of the judiciary and the traditional powers and privileges of Malaysia's royalty. He also deployed the controversial Internal Security Act to detain activists, non-mainstream religious figures, and political opponents including his sacked deputy, Anwar Ibrahim. Tun Dr.Mahathir bin Mohamad's record of curbing civil liberties and his antagonism to western diplomatic interests and economic policy made his relationships with the likes of the US, Britain and Australia difficult. As Prime Minister, he was an advocate of third-world development and a prominent international activist for causes such as the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and the interests of Bosnians in the 1990s Balkans conflict. At UMNO's general assembly in 2002, Mahathir announced that he would resign as Prime Minister, only for supporters to rush to the stage and convince him tearfully to remain. He subsequently fixed his retirement for October 2003, giving him time to ensure an orderly and uncontroversial transition to his anointed successor, Abdullah Badawi. Having spent over 22 years in office, Mahathir was the world's longest-serving elected leader when he retired. He remains an active political figure in his retirement, having become a strident critic of his handpicked successor, Abdullah Badawi, and actively supporting Abdullah's replacement by Najib Razak.