During his term in office, Mahathir turned Malaysia into a regional high-tech manufacturing, financial, and telecommunications hub through his economic policies based on corporate nationalism, known as the various “Malaysia Plans” which set out the government middle-term objectives. These policies with strong Keynesian tendency remained in effect almost to the end of his tenure in office.^{[citation needed]}

His pet projects have included Perwaja Steel, an attempt to emulate South Korea and Japan, the Proton car company, and Astro, a satellite television service.^{[citation needed]}

Mahathir is credited with spearheading the phenomenal growth of the Malaysian economy, now one of the largest in Southeast Asia. Growth between 1988 and 1997 averaged over ten percent and living standards rose twentyfold, with poverty relatively almost eradicated and social indicators such as literacy levels and infant mortality rates becoming almost on par with developed countries.^{[citation needed]}

During this period, Mahathir embarked on various large scale national projects, such as the North-South Expressway, Multimedia Super Corridor, the planned capital city of Putrajaya, Johor’s Port of Tanjung Pelepas, Kuala Lumpur International Airport, the Bakun Dam in Sarawak, and the Petronas Towers.

While such projects have their benefits, corresponding high costs have made some Malaysians reluctant to engage in more of such ventures, believing that the money can be better spent on other areas of development.^[18] On the other hand, Mahathir has always argued that such projects yield a direct return to the economy, apart from just serving the national pride, as government spendings in turn create jobs along with other multiplier effects. Mahathir has also been criticised for the failures and inefficiency of some of his pet projects. Perwaja Steel eventually failed and had to be rescued by a corporate white knight. Its chairman, Eric Chia, faced charges of corruption in 2004. Proton eventually had to be bought by Petronas when its parent DRB-HICOM found itself over-extended, and is still currently fighting to become profitable. Astro enjoyed a monopoly on pay television services in Malaysia until 2005 when it ended with the granting of a licence to a rival MiTV

The Bakun Dam project was to be managed by a local construction firm, Ekran Berhad. It issued a 1-for-1 on time rights issue which was 63% undersubscribed (the first time in Malaysia for an event of this magnitude). Ekran’s chairman, Ting Pek King, had to purchase all unsubscribed shares at a cost of $500 million ringgit due to his agreement with the underwriters. Subsequently the dam project was taken back by the government which was obliged to pay Ekran for the work already completed.

In 1983 and 1991, he took on the federal and state monarchies, removing the royal veto and royal immunity from prosecution.^[11] Prior to this amendment of the law, royal assent was required in order for any bill to pass into law. With effect of this amendment, approval by parliament could be legally considered as royal assent after a period of 30 days, notwithstanding the views of the monarchs.

In 1988 when the future of the ruling party UMNO was about to be decided in the Supreme Court (it had just been de-registered as an illegal society in the High Court), he was believed to have engineered the dismissal of the Lord President of the Supreme Court, Salleh Abas, and three other supreme court justices who tried to block the misconduct hearings. The series of incidents in 1988 has been widely viewed as the end of the Malaysian judiciary’s independence from the executive.

• Tun Musa Hitam 1981-1986
• Tun Ghafar Baba 1986-1993, appointed by Mahathir
• Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim 1993-1998
• Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi 1999-2003, appointed by Mahathir

Mahathir became the Prime Minister of Malaysia on 16 July 1981 when Tun Hussein Onn stepped down due to health reasons. He was the nation’s first Prime Minister that came from a modest social background, whereas the first three prime ministers were members of the royal or elite families.^[13]

After 22 years in office, Mahathir retired on 31 October 2003, making him one of Asia’s longest-serving political leaders. Upon his retirement on 31 October 2003, Mahathir was awarded a “Tun“-ship, Malaysia’s highest civilian honour.

In the third general election of 1964, Mahathir was elected Member of Parliament for Kota Setar Selatan^[16] defeating the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party’s (PAS) candidate with a 60.2% majority. He lost the seat in the following general election in 1969 by a mere 989 votes to PAS’s candidate, Haji Yusoff Rawa.^[17]

Following the race riots of 13 May 1969, Mahathir was sacked from the UMNO Supreme Council on 12 July, following his widespread distribution to the public of his letter to Tunku Abdul Rahman, the Prime Minister at that time. In his letter, he had criticised the manner in which Tunku Abdul Rahman had handled the country’s administration which was believed to favour the ethnic Chinese. Dr. Mahathir was subsequently relieved of his party membership on 26 September.^[17]

While in the political wilderness, Mahathir wrote his book, “The Malay Dilemma”^[17] in which he sought to explain the causes of the 13 May Incident in Kuala Lumpur and the reasons for the Malays’ lack of economic progress within their own country. He then proposed a politico-economic solution in the form of “constructive protection”, worked out after careful consideration of the effects of heredity and environmental factors on the Malay race. The book, published in 1970, was promptly banned by the Tunku Abdul Rahman government.^[17] However, some of the proposals in this book had been used by Tun Abdul Razak, Tunku Abdul Rahman’s successor, in his “New Economic Policy” (NEP) that was principally geared towards affirmative action economic programs to address the nation’s economic disparity between the Malays and the non-Malays. The ban on his book was eventually lifted after Mahathir became Prime Minister in 1981.^[17]

Mahathir rejoined UMNO on 7 March 1972, and was appointed as Senator in 1973. He relinquished the senatorship post in 1974 in order to contest in the general elections where he was returned unopposed in the constituency of Kubang Pasu, and was appointed as the Minister of Education.^[17] In 1975, he became one of the three vice-presidents of UMNO, after winning the seat by 47 votes. Tun Hussein Onn appointed Mahathir as Deputy Prime Minister on 15 September 1978, and in a Cabinet reshuffle, appointed him concurrently as the Minister of Trade and Industry.

Mahathir had announced that he has resigned from UMNO, the backbone of the ruling party, the Barisan National on 19 May 2008 which coincides with the Wesak Day celebration.

Mahathir was born in Alor Setar, Kedah,^[6] the youngest of nine children^[7] of a schoolteacher and a housewife. His father, Mohamad Iskandar, was of Indian origin, being the son of a Malayalee Muslim (who migrated from Kerala) and a Malay mother, while Mahathir’s own mother, Wan Tampawan, was Malay.^[8]

During World War II, he sold pisang goreng (banana fritters) and other snacks to supplement his family income during the Japanese occupation of Malaya. Mahathir attended a Malay vernacular school before continuing his education at the Sultan Abdul Hamid College in Alor Star. Mahathir then attended the King Edward VII Medical College (the predecessor of present-day National University of Singapore) in Singapore, where he edited a medical student magazine called The Cauldron; he also contributed to the The Straits Times newspaper pseudonymously under the nickname “Che Det”. Mahathir was also President of the Muslim Society in the college.^[9] Upon graduation in 1953, Mahathir joined the then Malayan government service as a medical officer. He married Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali—a fellow doctor and former classmate in college—on 5 August 1956, and left government service in 1957 to set up his own private practice in Alor Star. Mahathir thrived in private practice, and allowed him to own by 1959 a Pontiac Catalina and employ an ethnic Chinese chauffeur (at the time, almost all chauffeurs in Malaysia were Malays, owing to the economic dominance of the ethnic Chinese).^[10] Some critics have suggested this foreshadowed a later hallmark of Mahathir’s politics, which focused on the “cultivation of such emblems of power”.^[11]

From his marriage with Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah binti Haji Mohamad Ali, they have seven children,^[12] four sons and three daughters: Marina Mahathir, Mirzan Mahathir, Melinda Mahathir, Mokhzani Mahathir, Mukhriz Mahathir, Maizura Mahathir and Mazhar Mahathir. ^[13] Both Mukhriz and Mokhzani ^[14] are involved in business as well as in politics while their eldest daughter Marina is a prominent local writer and AIDS activist.^[15]

He successfully underwent a heart bypass operation in 1989 at age 63.

Yang Amat Berbahagia Tun Mahathir bin Mohamad
Prime Minister of Malaysia
In office 16 July 1981 – 31 October 2003
Monarch	Ahmad Shah Iskandar Azlan Shah Jaafar Salahuddin Mizan Zainal Abidin (Regent) Sirajuddin
Deputy	Musa Hitam Ghafar Baba Anwar Ibrahim Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Preceded by	Hussein Onn
Succeeded by	Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia
In office 15 September 1978 – 16 July 1981
Prime Minister	Hussein Onn
Preceded by	Hussein Onn
Succeeded by	Musa Hitam
21st Secretary General of Non-Aligned Movement
In office 25 February 2003 – 31 October 2003.
Preceded by	Thabo Mbeki
Succeeded by	Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Born	10 July 1925 (1925-07-10) (age 84) Alor Star, Kedah, British Malaya
Political party	United Malays National Organisation-National Front
Spouse(s)	Siti Hasmah
Profession	Doctor of Medicine
Religion	Islam
Signature
Website	[1]

Tun Mahathir bin Mohamad (pronounced [maˈhatir bin moˈhamat̚]; born July 10, 1925) is a retired Malaysian political figure. He 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, and one of the longest-serving leaders in Asia.^[1] During his term in office, he was credited for engineering Malaysia’s rapid modernisation.^[2] Mahathir is also known for his criticisms towards western and developed countries.^[3]

During his administration, he was considered to be one of Asia’s most influential leaders.^[4] Mahathir is also noted in the Western world as an outspoken critic of Western-style globalization.

After his retirement as Prime Minister he continued to contribute to welfare organisations. He was instrumental in the setting up of the Tun Hussein Onn Eye Hospital. He was also an advisor to Petronas the country’s ooil company and Chairman of Institute of strategic and International Studies (ISIS).

During the 1987 UMNO leadership crisis, Tun Hussein fell out with Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, supporting Team B along with Tunku Abdul Rahman. Tun Hussein along with Tunku, henceforth, became a strident critic of the Mahathir administration and died without having rejoined UMNO.

He died in the 29 May 1990 in Seaton Medical Center, San Francisco, at the age of 68. He had two sons and four daughters. He is buried in Makam Pahlawan (Heroes Mausoleum) near Masjid Negara, Kuala Lumpur.

Tun Hussein Onn was looked upon as being very sincere in his struggle for racial unity and had a reputation of being fir against anyone the tried to create racial unrest in the country and it was due to this, that he was known as “Father of Unity”.

Hussein’s son, Dato’ Seri Hishammuddin Bin Tun Hussein, became the Home Minister of Malaysia on April 10, 2009.

On the 17 September 2005, Hussein Onn’s eldest daughter Datin Roqiyah Hanim, died at the age of 56 from breast cancer in Kuala Lumpur.

Tun Hussein returned to politics in1968 after being persuaded by the then Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak to rejoin UMNO. He stood and won the general elections in 1969 and was appointed as the education minister. Tun Hussein’s meteoric rise continued when on August 13, 1973 he succeeded the late Tun Dr Ismail as the Deputy Prime Minister. On January 15, 1976 he was appointed as Prime Minister of Malaysia after the death of Tun Razak.

Tun Hussein was renowned for stressing on the issue of unity through policies aimed at retrifying economic imbalances between the communities. For instance, April 20, 1981 saw the National Unit Trust Scheme being launched. He also gave serious consideration to the concept of Rukun Tetangga (a neighbourhood watch scheme) and the fight against the drug menace.

Tun Hussein, who was married to Toh Puan Suhaila Tan Sri Haji Mohd Noah, for 42 years underwent a coronary bypass in early 1981. On July 17 the same year, he retired from active politics and relinquished his prime minister post due to health concerns. He was succeeded by Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.

Tun Hussein, who came from a family deep nationalistic spirit and political roots, resigned from the civil service to go into politics. In 1949, he became the first youth chief of UMNO (United Malays National Organization), a party his father helped established. In 1950, he was elected the UMNO a secretary general. Tun Hussein however left UMNO in 1951 to join his father in forming the Independence of Malaya Party (IMP).\

With IMP losing momentum, Tun Hussein went to London to study law at Lincoln’s Inn, qualifying as a Barrister-at-Law. He came back as a certified lawyer and practiced in Kuala Lumpur.

Tun Hussein received his early education in Singapore and at the English College in Johor Bahru. After leaving school, he joined the Johor Military Forces as a cadet in 1940 and was sent a year later to the Indian Millitary Academy in Dehradun, India. Upon completion of his training, he was absorbed into the Indian Army and served in the Middle East when the Second World War broke. After the war, his vast experience prompted the British to employ him as an instructor at the Malayan Police Recruiting and Training Centre in Rawalpindi.

Tun Hussein came back to Malaysia in 1945 and was appointed Commandant of the Johor Bahru Police Depot. The following year he joined the Malaya Civil Service as an assistant administrative officer in Segamat, Johor. He was later posted to the state of Selangor, becoming Klang and Kuala Selangor’s district officer.

Tun Hussein bin Dato’ Onn (Feruary 12, 1922 – May 29, 1990) who is of 3/4 Malay and 1/4 Circassian ancestry was the third Prime Minister of Malaysia, ruling from 1976 to 1981. He was granted the sobriquet Bapa Perpaduan (Father of Unity). He was born in Johor Bahru, Johor on February 12, 1922 to Dato Onn Jaafar and Datin Halimah Hussein.

Yang Amat Berbahagia Tun Hussein Onn
Prime Minister of Malaysia
In office 15 January 1976 – 16 July 1981
Monarch	Yahya Petra Ahmad Shah
Deputy	Mahathir bin Mohamad
Preceded by	Abdul Razak
Succeeded by	Mahathir bin Mohamad
3rd Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia
In office 13 August 1973 – 15 January 1976
Prime Minister	Abdul Razak
Preceded by	Ismail Abdul Rahman
Succeeded by	Mahathir Mohamad
Born	12 February 1922(1922-02-12) Johor Bahru, Johor, British Malaya
Died	28 May 1990 (aged 68) South San Francisco, United States
Political party	United Malays National Organisation-National Front
Spouse(s)	Suhailah Noah
Occupation	Lawyer
Religion	Islam

Awards

• Tun Razak was posthumously granted the soubriquet Bapa Pembangunan (Father of Development).
• There are several roads and highways in Malaysia named after Tun Razak such as Tun Razak Highway (Federal Route connecting Segamat, Johor to Gambang, Pahang), Jalan Tun Razak in Kuala Lumpur (part of Kuala Lumpur Middle Ring Road 1), Jalan Tun Abdul Razak in Johor Bahru (part of Skudai Highway), Jalan Tun Abdul Razak in Ipoh (also known as Maxwell Road) and Jalan Tun Abdul Razak in Melaka City (street name for Melaka Bypass).
• Bandar Tun Razak in Kuala Lumpur and Bandar Tun Abdul Razak, Pahang are the towns named after Tun Razak.
• The most prominent landmark in Georgetown, Penang is the KOMTAR building, the Tun Abdul Razak Complex, housing stores and offices. Another building of the same name was also built in Johor Bahru.
• The Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre in Brickendonbury, England, is named in his honour.

Tun Abdul Razak was descended from a long line of Pahang chieftains of Bugis descent.^[2][3] He was the brother in law of Tun Hussein Onn, his successor as Prime Minister.

Abdul Razak’s eldest son, Najib Tun Razak, became the 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia on 3 April 2009, succeeding Abdullah Badawi. He has four other sons, Datuk Ahmad Johari Razak, Mohamed Nizam, Mohamed Nazim and Mohamed Nazir.

Due in part to leukemia, Abdul Razak died on January 14, 1976 while seeking medical treatment in London. He was posthumously granted the soubriquet Bapa Pembangunan (Father of Development). He is laid to rest in Heroes Mausoleum near Masjid Negara, Kuala Lumpur.

At the time of Separation of Singapore from the Federation of Malaysia in 1965, Tun Razak realised that UMNO needed more young leaders in the party. Faced with, amongst other things Lee Kuan Yew’s considerable rhetorical skills, Razak wanted young Malay leaders – grounded in their own faith and culture – who would be able to speak and if necessary debate both in the Malay language and English language.

Razak understood that power resided in the Malay community and that for this power to be wielded effectively, the elite among the Malays had to be an elite determined by ability, aptitude and commitment to the nation as a whole. Class, birth and money were secondary in his calculations.

As a consequence of this initiative, the then young leaders of mixed heritage in UMNO, such as Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (whose grandfather was an Indian immigrant), were drafted into higher echelons of the political establishment.

On September 1970, Tun Razak succeeded Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra as the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

After the May 13 Incident in 1969, his faction in UMNO overthrew Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra and imposed a State of Emergency, ruling by decree until 1970. On September 1970, Tun Razak succeeded Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra as the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Tun Razak set up the Barisan Nasional or National Front on January 1, 1973 to replace the ruling Alliance Party. He increased the membership of its parties and coalitions in an effort to establish “Ketahanan Nasional” (National Strength) through political stability.

Tun Razak is also renowned for launching the Malaysian New Economic Policy (MNEP) in 1971. He and the “second generation” of Malay politicians saw the need to tackle vigorously the economic and social disparities which fuelled racial antagonism. The MNEP set two basics goals – to reduce and eventually eradicate poverty, and to reduce and eventually eradicate identification of economic function with race.

Upon his return from the United Kingdom, Tun Razak joined the Malayan Civil Service. Owing to his political caliber, he became the youth chief for United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). Two years later, he worked as the Assistant State Secretary of Pahang and in February 1955, at just 33 years of age, became Pahang’s Chief Minister.

Razak stood in and won a seat in Malaysia’s first general elections in July 1955 and was appointed as the Education Minister. Tun Razak was also a member of the February 1956 mission to London to seek the independence of Malaya from the British.

After the general elections in 1959, he became the Minister of Rural Development in addition to holding the portfolios of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence. His achievements include formulating the development policy known as the Red Book.

Born in Pulau Keladi, Pekan, Pahang on March 11, 1922, Tun Razak is the first of two child to Dato’ Hussein bin Mohd Taib and Hajah Teh Fatimah bt Daud. Of aristocratic descent, Abdul Razak studied at the Malay College Kuala Kangsar.

After joining the Malay Administrative Service in 1939, he was awarded a scholarship to study at Raffles College in Singapore in 1940. His studies at the college ceased with the onset of the Second World War. During the war he helped organize the Wataniah resistance movement in Pahang.^[1]

After World War II, Tun Razak left for Britain in 1947 to study law. In 1950 he received a law degree and qualified as barrister at Lincoln’s Inn in London. During his student days in England, Tun Razak was a member of the British Labour Party and a prominent student leader of the Kesatuan Melayu Great Britain (Malay Association of Great Britain). He also formed the Malayan Forum, an organisation for Malayan students to discuss their country’s political issues.

Tun Abd Razak bin Hussein Al-Haj (March 11, 1922-January 14, 1976) was the second Prime Minister of Malaysia, ruling from 1970 to 1976).

Tun Razak was the Prime Minister responsible in setting up Barisan Nasional, which is the ruling coalition of political parties that have held power in Malaysia till today, taking over from its predecesor, the Alliance. He is also renowned for launching the Malaysia New Economic Policy (MNEP)

Yang Amat Berbahagia Tun Tun Abd Razak
Prime Minister of Malaysia
In office 22 September 1970 – 14 January 1976
Monarch	Abdul Halim Yahya Petra
Deputy	Ismail Abdul Rahman Hussein Onn
Preceded by	Abdul Rahman
Succeeded by	Hussein Onn
Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia
In office 31 August 1957 – 22 September 1970
Prime Minister	Abdul Rahman
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Ismail Abdul Rahman
Born	11 March 1922(1922-03-11) Pekan, Pahang, British Malaya
Died	14 January 1976 (aged 53) London, England, United Kingdom
Political party	United Malays National Organisation-National Front
Spouse(s)	Rahah Noah
Alma mater	Malay College Kuala Kangsar Raffles College
Occupation	Lawyer
Religion	Islam

• In 1961, Tunku Abdul Rahman was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) by Queen Elizabeth II, and was appointed an honorary Companion of the Order of Australia in 1987.

• Tunku Abdul Rahman Stamp Issues: In 1991, he adorned part of the collection of Past Prime Ministers of Malaysia stamps issue. In 2003, stamps of Tunku Abdul Rahman were issued to commemorate his 100th birthday anniversary and to pay tribute to him as he was the first prime minister of Malaysia since Malaysia became an independent nation in 1957.

Abdul Rahman married at least four times. By his first wife, a Thai Chinese woman named Meriam Chong, he had Tunku Khadijah and Tunku Ahmad Nerang. On Meriam’s death, he married his former landlady in England, Violet Coulson. He was ordered to divorce her by the Regent of Kedah.

He then married Sharifah Rodziah Syed Alwi Barakbah, with whom he adopted four children, Sulaiman, Mariam, Sharifah Hanizah (granddaughter) and Faridah. Sharifah Rodziah served as First Lady of Malaysia during Tunku’s prime ministership.

Wanting to have more children of his own, he secretly married another Chinese lady named Bibi Chong who converted upon marriage. He had two daughters with her, Tunku Noor Hayati and Tunku Mastura.

Tunku Abdul Rahman died on 6 December 1990 at the age of eighty-seven, and was laid to rest at the Langgar Royal Mausoleum in Alor Star.

In 1977, having acquired substantial shares in The Star, a Penang-based newspaper, Abdul Rahman became the newspaper’s Chairman. His columns, “Looking Back” and “As I See It”, were critical of the government, and in 1987 Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad banned the newspaper. This led to a split in UMNO, with Abdul Rahman and another former Prime Minister, Tun Hussein Onn, setting up a new party called UMNO Malaysia, but its registration was quashed by Mahathir Mohamad, who set up his own UMNO Baru (“New UMNO”). Abdul Rahman later supported Semangat 46, a splinter group of UMNO led by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. He campaigned actively for the latter in the General election of 1990, but was already in very poor health. The well-educated, visionary Tunku could barely contain his contempt for Mahathir’s brash nationalism (i.e. Ketuanan Melayu) that went totally against the Rukun Negara and brought about serious racial segregation. He was a pillar of staunch opposition until his death in 1990.