TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Biographer of Dr. M paints gloomy picture of Malaysia
The big Kahunas: Former Asian Wall Street Journal managing editor Barry Wain (second left) talks about his new book Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times at the book’s launch in Jakarta on Wednesday while former Indonesian ambassador to Australia Sabam Siagian (left), Jusuf Wanandi of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) (second right) and Wiryono Satrohandoyo, also from CSIS, look on
Change Size
T
span class="inline inline-right">The big Kahunas: Former Asian Wall Street Journal managing editor Barry Wain (second left) talks about his new book Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times at the book’s launch in Jakarta on Wednesday while former Indonesian ambassador to Australia Sabam Siagian (left), Jusuf Wanandi of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) (second right) and Wiryono Satrohandoyo, also from CSIS, look on. JP/R. Berto Wedhatama
Former Malaysian strongman Mahathir Mohamad sowed the seeds of religious extremism that now rears its ugly head in the form of attacks against Christian churches there, his biographer Barry Wain says.
Church burning is symptomatic of religious politics seen in Malaysia today, Wain told a discussion at
the launch of his book Malaysian Maverick — Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Religious extremism and corruption were some negative legacies left behind by the man who led Malaysia as prime minister for 22 years until 2003, the former editor of the Wall Street Journal Asia said “He didn’t necessarily create them, but they developed under his watch.”
In the past month, Malaysia has seen a spate of attacks against houses of prayer for religious minorities in the wake of the controversy over the use of the word “Allah” for God. The Malaysian government, which had insisted that the word only be used by Muslims, lost its case in the Supreme Court.
The book, published by Palgrave MacMillan, was jointly launched by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Kompas daily newspaper and The Jakarta Post.
Former senior diplomat Wirjono Sastrohandojo and senior journalist/former ambassador Sabam Siagian commented on the book at the discussion.
Wain said he was waiting for the Malaysian government to allow local sales of “Maverick”, which reviewers said gives an honest account of the man who turned Malaysia into a modern and wealthy country.
Dr. M, as the former Malaysian prime minister is popularly called, has “thrashed the book” in his blog, Wain said, but added that he believed that many Malaysians had read the book by buying copies in Singapore.
Wain said he was pessimistic about the near-term outlook for Malaysia, noting that in spite of two prime ministers, Abdullah Badawi and now Najib Razak since 2003, nothing much had changed in Malaysian politics after Mahathir’s departure.
He described the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the dominant party in the ruling coalition, as “morally exhausted and ideologically hollow”, incapable of introducing reforms that the country desperately needed to end the corruption and nepotism that had become hallmarks of Malaysian politics.
