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For his 100th birthday, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad will arrive as usual at his office in Putrajaya, the administrative centre he built just south of central Kuala Lumpur, by 8.30am.
At about 10am, he’ll record his own podcast, called Podcast Dr. M, and then greet walk-ins, well-wishers and friends until noon, before heading home for lunch.
Mahathir Mohamad works at his desk the day after he resigned as prime minister in 2020.Credit: AP
Normally, he’d be back in the office at 2.30pm, but on this occasion he’s attending the relaunch of Galeria Sri Perdana, a museum that was once his prime ministerial residence.
“It’s work as usual,” his office says. Even so, this day is considered “light”.
Only last year, Mahathir spent weeks in and out of hospital, prompting reasonable estimations that it might be curtains for the man who led Malaysia for more than a third of its post-independence history. But comebacks are part of the Mahathir brand.
In 2018, at the age of 93, he became Malaysia’s prime minister for the second time – and the world’s oldest elected leader. He held office until he quit in 2020 amid internal political manoeuvring and infighting.
Mahathir Mohamad addresses the media from his office in 2020.Credit: AP
His first stint in office began in 1981 and lasted until he stepped away willingly in 2003. The period “put Malaysia on the map” as an emerging economy, says Professor James Chin of the University of Tasmania.
Opponents criticise his 24 years at the top as autocratic.
Enmity between Mahathir and current Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who was once jailed on sodomy charges considered by many to be a political conspiracy, continues today.
“I think his failures outweigh the positives,” Chin says.
Mahathir and then Australian prime minister Paul Keating at the APEC summit in 1994.Credit: Fairfax
Australians of a certain age may remember the kerfuffle during his first stretch when Paul Keating, the prime minister of the day, famously called him a “recalcitrant” for not attending the first APEC summit in the US city of Seattle in 1993.
Keating walked it back, saying the remark wasn’t planned to offend. Mahathir did turn up the following year in Indonesia.
Ten years after Seattle, Kevin Rudd, then shadow foreign affairs minister, used the term again (adding the word “utterly”) to criticise Mahathir’s “determination to turn himself into a minor folk hero in the militant Islamic world and his unabated campaign of hostility towards the west in general, and Australia in particular”.
Many things about Australia, in fact, irked Mahathir.
Mahathir Mohamad in Putrajaya, Malaysia, in 2023.Credit: Bloomberg
“He didn’t like Australia claiming to be part of Asia,” Chin says. “He always saw Australia as a white man’s outpost, and he was especially annoyed when Australia started preaching about human rights.
“One of the things he was very successful in selling to the rest of South-East Asia was that Australia was the deputy sheriff to America … that Australia was always doing the bidding of the Americans.”
At 100, Mahathir remains outspoken and embroiled in controversy, though his influence has waned. In the 2022 elections, the new party he formed did not win a single seat.
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“Yet his role in making Malaysia remains deeply embedded, so much so it may take another few generations to move beyond his legacy,” says veteran political analyst Bridget Welsh.
Mahathir’s office says he cannot dismiss Thursday’s milestone, “though probably he would like to”. They say he is greeted on the streets of Kuala Lumpur by singing celebrations and has been presented at least seven cakes since Monday.
The centenarian has long outlived giant South-East Asian contemporaries – Indonesia’s Suharto, the Philippines’ Ferdinand Marcos and Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew.
Is there more politics left in Mahathir’s considerable tank?
“People have asked him directly to his face, ‘if Anwar is overthrown, are you coming back as a prime minister for a third time?’” Chin says.
“I would have thought you’d say no, but he never gives a direct answer.”
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