Thinkers and political figures
Portrait: Photograph, 2018, via Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab) · Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
Mahathir Mohamad
- Country
- Malaysia
- Era
- b. 1925
- Tradition
- Developmental nationalism
Malaysia’s prime minister for twenty-two years and again at ninety-two, who industrialised the country, defied the IMF during the Asian financial crisis, and entrenched ethnic preference policies for the Malay majority.
01
Documented positions
Documented positions come from the sources listed. Similarity is this project’s inference from those positions, and is a much weaker claim.
- Pursued state-led industrialisation through heavy industry, national car production and large infrastructure projects
- Rejected IMF conditions during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, imposing capital controls and pegging the currency instead
- Extended the New Economic Policy of preferential treatment for ethnic Malays in education, employment and equity ownership
- Advocated "Asian values" against Western pressure on human rights and governance
- Used the Internal Security Act to detain political opponents without trial, notably in Operation Lalang in 1987
- Curtailed the powers of the judiciary and the monarchy in constitutional confrontations
- Returned in 2018 at the head of an opposition coalition that defeated the party he had led for decades
02
Where it sits on each dimension
Wealth and inequality
50
RedistributionMarket outcomes
Evidence: Documented
The state in the economy
30
Active stateLimited state
Evidence: Well documented
Personal liberty
20
Collective orderIndividual freedom
Evidence: Well documented
Tradition and change
35
ContinuityReform
Evidence: Documented
Nation and the world
88
InternationalistNationalist
Evidence: Well documented
Religion and the state
62
Secular stateReligion in public life
Evidence: Documented
Power and its limits
22
Concentrated authorityChecks and pluralism
Evidence: Well documented
Environment and growth
30
Production firstProtection first
Evidence: Documented
Crime and punishment
20
PunishmentRehabilitation
Evidence: Documented
Sources
- Mahathir Mohamad, The Malay Dilemma · 1970
- Khoo Boo Teik, Paradoxes of Mahathirism · Oxford University Press · 1995
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