On the Nationwide Mosque in Kuala Lumpur on a latest Friday, a crowd of males angled for an close-up take a look at the silver-haired determine in a grey swimsuit exiting an elevator.
They held their digital camera telephones up excessive and perched on stairs to catch a greater glimpse. Those that might get shut sufficient stepped ahead to kiss the person’s hand. A worshiper put his hand to his head in a salute.
The person commanding all this consideration was Mahathir Mohamad, 99, who served extra years as prime minister than anybody in Malaysia’s historical past.
Beginning in 1981, he ruled uninterrupted for 22 years, engineering an financial transformation that reshaped the nation from one depending on tin, rubber and palm oil into one of many world’s main high-tech exporters.
Then in 2018, after a 15-year break, he was elected once more at 92, setting a file because the world’s oldest prime minister.
However he stays a deeply polarizing determine, reviled by many for clamping down laborious on his political opponents — most notoriously, Anwar Ibrahim, the present prime minister — and for his incendiary feedback about Jews and race in Malaysia.
Western governments, together with the USA, condemned what occurred to Mr. Anwar when his mentor led the nation. Mr. Mahathir fired Mr. Anwar as deputy prime minister in 1998, and his No. 2 was imprisoned for years on corruption and sodomy costs, severely overwhelmed and extensively thought of a political prisoner.
And for all of the reward he gained for Malaysia’s financial transformation, Mr. Mahathir was additionally topic to a lot less-flattering assessments. He has been referred to as Machiavellian, a dictator, an autocrat and an antisemite.
As he approaches his a centesimal birthday in July, Mr. Mahathir assessed his personal legacy in a wide-ranging, hourlong interview in mid-February in his workplace in Putrajaya, the executive capital that he constructed about an hour’s drive from downtown Kuala Lumpur.
When requested in regards to the dictator label, Mr. Mahathir seemed amused.
“Do strongmen ever resign?” he responded. “If you will discover a dictator who resigns, then you’ll be able to name me a dictator.”
(Political historians would possibly counter that there are examples, together with Augusto Pinochet in Chile.)
And what in regards to the costs that he’s antisemitic?
In previous statements, he has referred to as Jews “hook nosed,” mentioned they “rule the world by proxy” and blamed them for the Asian monetary disaster in 1997 — singling out George Soros, the financier, who, Mr. Mahathir identified, is Jewish.
Within the interview, Mr. Mahathir mentioned he had “no drawback” with Jews and pitied them for the huge struggling of the Holocaust. However he mentioned he grew to become appalled when the formation of Israel resulted within the expulsion and killing of Palestinians.
“Once I criticize the Jews for doing unsuitable issues, dangerous issues and oppressive issues, they label me as an anti-Jew,” he mentioned. “I’m declaring that what they have been doing is unsuitable; that’s all.”
Some analysts have characterised such offensive tirades, like blaming Jews collectively for what he sees because the failings of Israeli state coverage, as a method for him to pander to a home viewers that has lengthy supported the Palestinian trigger. Others prompt they have been a method for Mr. Mahathir, who has lengthy referred to as for Islam to coexist with the fashionable world, to bolster his personal non secular bona fides.
Throughout his first tenure as prime minister, Mr. Mahathir made race the middle of his and Malaysia’s politics. He championed the concept of Malay supremacy and gave profitable enterprise alternatives to pick out Malay businessmen, which critics referred to as cronyism.
Nonetheless, he typically hectored his fellow Malays, calling them lazy. Throughout the interview, he made the identical type of sweeping statements that had been a attribute of his time in workplace: “The Malays don’t work as laborious as the opposite races,” he mentioned, whereas noting that “the Chinese language are very laborious working, and they’re very materialistic.”
No matter his ultimate legacy, Mr. Mahathir is decided so as to add to it.
5 years after stepping down in 2020 from his second stint as prime minister, he nonetheless wields affect and dominates headlines.
One obsession retains him going.
“Earlier than I die, for as a lot as I can perform,” Mr. Mahathir mentioned, “I want to proceed my work in attempting to contribute to the expansion of Malaysia.”
In entrance of him on his desk was a letter asking him to intervene in Malaysia’s present financial issues. Subsequent to it was a clipboard along with his newest essay in longhand for his weblog. (It began: “Poor Ukraine.”) Past his proper shoulder was the Components One helmet that he acquired as a present in September when he drove round a racetrack, clocking 96 miles an hour.
Each weekday, he’s within the workplace by 8:30 a.m. and works for about 9 hours, generally 12.
“Working is the very best remedy for not being in poor health, that’s what he tells me,” mentioned his spouse, Dr. Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, 98, to whom he has been married for near seven a long time. “He says: ‘If I relaxation at dwelling, I’ll be losing my time.’
Dr. Hasmah, who devoted her medical profession to maternal and baby well being, described a husband who handled her as an equal. He despatched her to steer diplomatic delegations when she was first girl, like a visit to Iraq to evaluate the impact of the United Nations’ financial sanctions on girls and kids. It resulted in a secret assembly with Saddam Hussein.
“There have been so many instances he believed in me,” she mentioned.
Mr. Mahathir thinks rather a lot about growing older and what it means for management. Outdated individuals ought to nonetheless contribute to politics, he mentioned — however not all outdated individuals. Final 12 months, he mentioned that Joseph R. Biden Jr., whom he had initially backed for the U.S. presidency, ought to step down.
“Though he’s youthful than me, he seemed and behaved like an outdated particular person,” Mr. Mahathir mentioned through the interview.
Amongst his biggest regrets, Mr. Mahathir mentioned, was his choice in 2003 to retire at 78 as a result of he felt he could be too outdated to contest the following election.
Throughout that first pause, he was by no means capable of keep on the sidelines. He criticized two of his protégés for what he mentioned have been financial mismanagement and private failings. Nevertheless it was a quest to defeat one in all them, Najib Razak, then prime minister, that gave rise to Mr. Mahathir’s outstanding second act in politics.
Someday in 2014, Malaysians began visiting Mr. Mahathir’s workplace to vent about Mr. Najib’s mismanaging of a state investment fund, 1 Malaysia Growth Berhad, or 1MDB, in keeping with Endie Shazlie Akbar, Mr. Mahathir’s former press secretary.
“It was nearly like individuals have been going to Jimmy Carter to complain about Donald Trump,” Mr. Endie mentioned.
Mr. Mahathir referred to as on Mr. Najib to resign, attended nationwide demonstrations and determined, lastly, that he not solely needed to come out of retirement, but in addition that he would group up along with his longtime nemesis: Mr. Anwar.
Collectively, the odd couple gained the election, and Mr. Mahathir was as soon as once more prime minister.
However the bonhomie lasted solely two years, after which Mr. Mahathir’s political social gathering defected from the profitable coalition and he resigned as premier for the second time.
His feud with Mr. Anwar continues to reverberate at this time. The Malaysian authorities is contemplating a criminal investigation into Mr. Mahathir over a territorial settlement with Singapore, wherein he withdrew Malaysia’s try to problem a earlier ruling on three islets. It has additionally requested Mr. Mahathir’s sons to reveal the sources of their wealth.
Mr. Mahathir mentioned he had tried to succeed in out to Mr. Anwar however he “needs nothing to do with me.” He added: “He treats me just like the opposition, the enemy nearly.”
A few of Mr. Mahathir’s actions recommend he isn’t all that desperate to make amends.
On a latest Friday, Mr. Mahathir met a gaggle referred to as the Malay Proclamation, which is made up of Malays involved about the way forward for their race however thought of by some analysts to be an anti-Anwar coalition.
Voters had an opportunity to render their very own verdict on his legacy: In 2022, Mr. Mahathir misplaced his seat in Parliament after gaining a mere 7 p.c of the vote.
James Chin, a professor of Asian research on the College of Tasmania, mentioned Mr. Mahathir’s newest coalition had been made up of utmost right-wing Malay events that turned off many Malaysians.
“Mahathir can be remembered extra for not bowing out gracefully,” mentioned Ong Kian Ming, who was the deputy commerce minister beneath Mr. Mahathir in his second stint.
Abdul Kadir Jasin, Mr. Mahathir’s former adviser, mentioned he had lengthy dreamed for his ex-boss to imagine a Nelson Mandela-type function in retirement: a revered statesman who would share his knowledge with the world.
“After all, it won’t be fulfilled,” Mr. Kadir mentioned of his want. “He’s at all times mentioned he doesn’t care how he’s remembered.”
“That’s Mahathir for you.”
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