MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD

born Dec. 20, 1925, Alor Setar, Kedah, Malay states [now in Malaysia] in full Datuk Seri Mahathir Bin Mohamad, Mohamad also spelled Mohamed or Muhammed Malaysian politician who served as prime minister from 1981 and oversaw his country's transition to an industrialized nation. The son of a schoolmaster, Mahathir was educated at Sultan Abdul Hamid College and the University of Malaya in Singapore, where he studied medicine. After graduating in 1953 he worked as a government medical officer until 1957 and then entered private practice. He was first elected to Parliament in 1964 as a member of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the dominant party within the ruling governmental coalition. In 1969, however, Mahathir was expelled from the UMNO after his forceful advocacy of ethnic Malay nationalism brought him into conflict with Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. (Though politically dominant, Malaysia's ethnic Malay majority was much poorer than the ethnic Chinese minority, which dominated the economy.) The New Economic Policy that the government adopted in 1971 to improve the economic situation of Malays embodied many of the ideas Mahathir had advocated. After Tun Abdul Razak became prime minister in 1970, Mahathir rejoined the UMNO and was reelected to its Supreme Council in 1972. He was reelected to Parliament in 1974 and was then appointed minister of education. When Datuk Hussein bin Onn became prime minister in 1976, he made Mahathir his deputy prime minister. In June 1981, soon after Datuk Hussein had announced his retirement, Mahathir was elected president of the UMNO, which ensured his succession as prime minister in July of that year. He was the first commoner to hold that office. Mahathir weathered several challenges to his leadership from within the UMNO, which won four general elections under his leadership in the period from 1982 to 1995. His long prime ministry gave Malaysia the political stability it needed to pursue policies fostering sustained economic growth. The government welcomed foreign investment, reformed the tax structure, reduced trade tariffs, and privatized numerous state-owned enterprises. Mahathir sought to bridge Malaysia's remaining ethnic divisions by increasing general prosperity. In this regard, the New Economic Policy, which had encouraged Malay economic success, was replaced in 1991 by the New Development Policy, which emphasized general economic growth and the elimination of poverty. Under Mahathir's leadership, Malaysia acquired one of the most prosperous and dynamic economies in Southeast Asia, with a growing manufacturing sector, an expanding middle class, rising literacy rates, and increased life expectancies. In the late 1990s, however, Malaysia's economy entered a depression, causing a split between Mahathir and his apparent successor, Deputy Premier and Financial Minister Anwar Ibrahim. Ibrahim's support of open markets and international investments was in opposition to Mahathir's growing distrust of the West. In 1998 Mahathir dismissed Ibrahim on corruption and sodomy charges, and a wave of antigovernment demonstrations swept the country. Ibrahim's conviction in 1999 sparked more protests under the reformasi (reform) banner, which called for Mahathir's resignation.