The Man, 1925-1964

Although “not to be found among the most famous names of pre-Merdeka nationalism nor . . . [to] be located among the vanguard of the UMNO-led independence movement”, Mahathir Mohamad was already making waves in his community in the 1940s. Born on 20/12/1925 in Alor Star, Kedah, he had fought for the betterment of his people – the Malays – in SABERKAS and the Kedah Malay Association, and (as a founding member) in the Kedah Malay Youth Association in his days as a youth. At the height of the Malay opposition to Malayan Union in mid-1946 he was putting up anti-British posters in the dead of night, worrying his parents to death. Unfortunately his potential as a Malay leader was not realized back then and this resulted in the dearth of publicized snapshots of these works.

In 1947 having won a partial scholarship from the Federal Government to study Medicine, 22 year-old Mahathir headed for King Edward VII College, University Malaya, Singapore. It was on the British colony that he met the love of his life, Siti Hasmah Ali whom he later married in 1957, and that he faced arguably the biggest humiliation of his life. A Chinese cabby mistook this “ young, brilliant [Malay] medical student” for a servant’s boy and dropped him off at the servants’ quarters belonging to a friend whom he was to visit. Hence “It Started With A Snub.” Even the Japanese military administration’s order to destroy the English-language book collection of his father’s personal library, which he loved to read, and to discontinue the public usage of the language, which he mastered and scored a “Very Good” in his UCLES School Certificate, could not compare to the snub. For the snub had launched his career as a social critic as his days as a Sunday Times (Singapore) stringer proves. A modern Abdullah Munshi, Mahathir was not hesistant to lash out at either the Malays’ “apathy towards English education and lack of faith in their own children’s abilities” nor the Malay leaders’ prolonging of “the backwardness of the Malays.” For one and a half years (September 1948 - April 1950) ink flowed from C.H.E. Det’s, an Anglicization of his pet name “Che Det”, sharp pen onto 15 articles. They are categorized by a Malaysian political scientist into the following three categories:

1. observations of Malay customs and social life – as in the articles on ronggeng, fish, durians, marriage customs, and the housewives;
2. analyses of the problems of the Malays – as in the articles on the Malay language, education, fisherfolk, and padi planters; and
3. political writings – as in the articles on nationality, royalty, and the Malays in South Siam.

This “sensitive[ness] to the plight of the Malays and alert[ness] to their interests” he maintained throughout his political career after clinching his M.B.B.S. in 1953. Back home Mahathir had been on a winning streak since he became Dr. UMNO. The degree awarded him the title Dr. which he values most compared to his many ‘medals’ until today. It also provided him with opportunities to serve his own people. It was his sincerity and compassion which won him their support. From a pioneer member of UMNO he advanced to become its Kedah branch Chairman and its Kedah branch Political Committee Chairman. His MAHA Clinic, relocated to Pekan Melayu, Alor Star from an earlier premises was popularly known as the “UMNO Clinic” and he as “DR. UMNO.”

Mahathir was also a leader by example, a Malay ‘firster’ indeed. In Alor Star he was the first Malay doctor to own a clinic while his car, a Pontiac was the biggest car owned by a Malay. It is interesting to note that he was also the one who started privatization. In a later capacity as Member of Parliament he handed over the night-soil collection job of the Town Council to a private contractor due to the former’s inefficiency.

A commoner, and a revolutioner in the making, Dr. Mahathir was also genuinely and verbally critical of the old order in general and specifically of Kedah royalty-UMNO president Tunku Abdul Rahman. His call for men of talent to fill the ranks of political candidates, his disapproval of the extravagant and un-Islamic lifestyle of government officials, and his rejection of Tunku’s philosophy of “Let the Chinese be traders and Malays be politicians” won him the hearts of the Malay rakyat.

In a bolder political move, Mahathir refused to stand as the party’s candidate in the 1959 general elections. Only in the following elections, 1964 did he contest, in the Kota Star Selatan constituency, which he won by defeating PAS candidate Mohd. Shaari Hj. Abd. Shukor with a majority of 4,210 votes. By then Dr. M was MP (Member of Parliament).