Dr mahatir biography

(b. Alor Setar, Kedah, 20 Dec. 1925)

Malaysian; Prime Minister 1981–2003 The son of a Malay headmaster of an English-medium school in Kedah, Mahathir was educated at Sultan Hamid College, Alor Setar, and the University of Malaya in Singapore where he qualified in medicine.

He worked as a medical officer in Kedah and Perlis 1953–7 and as a general practitioner 1957–64 when he was elected Member of the House of Representatives for Kota Setar Selatan.

An ‘ultra’ in the leading party, the United Malays National Organization, Mahathir was forced into the political wilderness after the 1969 race riots when he accused Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman of ‘giving the Chinese what they demand’.

He resumed medical practice and wrote The Malay Dilemma (1970) in which he diagnosed the causes for the economically inferior position of Malays in genetic and cultural terms and prescribed positive discrimination to ensure their position as the ‘definitive race’.

Although the