We greet our readers, Assalamualaikum.

To fulfil the requirement of our assignment,

we will discuss about the great leadership of Tun Dr Mahathir. Before going deep into the
discussion, we would like to remind that this discussion is based on what we think is right.
People may differ from our point of view but it is fine as this gives us chance to speak from
heart. As my part of the writing, I will discuss about the pros and cons of Dr Mahathirs
leadership as our ex prime minister. Every human being is not perfect thus it is useless if we
focus just on his achievements and success. We know that it is very hard to become a leader
especially the one who leads a country. Dr Mahathir had done a very tremendous job
throughout his reign. There were so many success and development that been achieved. Dr
Mahathir is a very well known political leader who served for almost 22 years and he is one
of the longest serving prime minister in asia. He was known for his bravery to criticize
towards western and developed countries. I will discuss briefly about his background as we
all very well known about his background.
His name is Mahathir bin mohamad, who was born in Alor Setar, Kedah on 20
December 1925. His fathers name is Mohamad bin Iskandar. His father was mixed blood of
indian and malay. His father was a malayalee muslim originated from Kerala while his
mother was a malay. Mahathir was the youngest child of Mohamad and Wan Tampawan. His
education background was very impressive as he went to Malay Vernacular school, Sultan
Abdul Hamid College and pursue his medical degree in King Edward VII. His nickname was
Che Det. In my opinion, Dr Mahathir was a great leader because he brings a lot of success
and developments to this country unlike his successor Abdullah Badawi and Najib Razak. For
me, both of his successor fail to achieve what Dr Mahathir has achieved for the past 22 years
of his reign. Malaysia nowadays faces lots of crisis that effect our reputation. For example the
fall of Malaysian currency, the disappearance of MH370, the accident of MH17 and lot more.
All this crisis shows that our leader fail to take control of the situation.
Now moving to the book written by Dr Mahathir, The Malay Dilemma, the book
were published in 1970 with controversial. The book main discussion was about the riot
happen on 13th May 1969. Apart from that, the book also discusses about why the malays are
economically backward. He wrote this book when he was practising medical after being
sacked from UMNO on 12th July 1969. The book then been banned by Tunku Abdul Rahman
who was the prime minister at that time due to the content that touched sensitive issues.
However some of the proposal from the book been used by Tun Abdul Razak during his reign
in his New Economic Policy (NEP). Then in 1981, Tun Dr Mahathir became the 4th prime
minister of Malaysia and eventually lifted the ban on his book. Due to great interest in
writing, he continue his writing by producing so many books such as The Monetary Crisis of
Malaysia: How and Why it Happened, A New Deal for Asia, The way Forward, The
Voice of Asia: Two Leaders Discuss The Coming Century, The Malaysian System of
Government, Menerangi Kemiskinan : Peladang, Penternak dan Nelayan, Regionalism,
Globalism and Sphere of Influence, The Challenge, Guide for Small Businessman,
Warisan Kepimpinan and Menghadapi Cabaran.
He is a very visionary man as he conceptualize VISION 2020 where by the year 2020,
Malaysia is expected to be a fully developed country. He was very determined to make his
vision happens by motivating all Malaysian to work harder in order to achieve the vision. He
also prepare our country to face future world by establishing the Multimedia Super Corridor
which emphasizes Information Technology (IT) as a very important asset in facing new

millennium. He has a very good sense of vision in order to bring Malaysia into another level.
He made our country visible in worldwide as he stand tough with our pride. Our pride was
our first national car, Proton Saga which were introduced through National Car Project by Dr
Mahathir in 1982. Not only that, he was a great mastermind who resolve the financial crisis in
1997 and stabilized Malaysian economy. He is among the great leaders in the world who is
globally recognized. So many youngsters in Malaysia accept Dr Mahathir as their idol as he
always have great sense of humor. Many will attend his speech as he always make his speech
interesting by making jokes and many other things.
Dr Mahathir also embark on various huge projects such as The North-South Highway
which helps a lot Malaysian citizen by reducing transport time in half. Apart from that, the
Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang and Formula One circuit which brings
a lot of income and achievements for Malaysia. When he introduces with such idea, there
were objection from some parties but he stood still with his vision. This kind of quality we
couldnt find in nowadays leaders. Nowadays leader seems like working in a comfort zone
and afraid to take risks. It was different when Dr Mahathirs era. For example, he would think
so many times before increasing the petrol price because it would burden the citizen but not
the same with Dato Najib Razak whom seems to not care on peoples charity. This effect on
peoples trust towards government and yet was born illegal parties and event like Bersih in
protesting against government. Najib Razak fail to convince people on his leadership as
majority of Malaysian lose faith in government. When Dr Mahathir rule this country, the
crime rate were very low compare to nowadays. We can see through news and social media
that crime rates in Malaysia keep rising from day to day and yet government fail to control it.
In my opinion, I would fully blame the government for such things to happen because our
law enforcement and government are severely corrupted. Malaysia nowadays are known by
corruption to worldwide. My blame is our prime minister, Dato Seri Najib Razak. He fails to
lead our country towards peaceful country as so many racial issues also arise nowadays. He
even quote in National Newspaper, Utusan Malaysia, apa lagi cina mahu right after election
due to Chinese citizen chooses to vote for opposition. This kind of racial statement is very
dangerous that can cause riot that had happen in 1969. Here, Najib fails to show good
leadership values and fails to follow the footstep of Dr Mahathir.
Other than that, Dr Mahathir is a very hardworking person as we can see he still
involve actively in any things that he do eventhough he is almost 82 years old. He is very
gentle the way he solve any problems. For example, during his era, there were no critical
racial issues arise like nowadays where we can see there is always misunderstanding between
the malays and the Chinese. For example, recently there was an issue involving Chinese and
malay fighting at Plaza Low Yat because of stealing case. This kind of phenomena is very
dangerous to our country as can cause riot and can effect our economic growth. Dr Mahathir
also was very brave that he speak and stood still for Malaysia in world organization and he
also strongly disagree with Israel. Israel invade into Palestine and kill thousands of innocent
people but yet all countries keep quiet but Dr Mahathir keep on condemn Israel for their
action.
There are so many good values that we can learn and follow from Dr Mahathir in our
daily life. But we have to understand that Dr Mahathir is still a human being that always
make mistakes. My motive here is not to point out his mistakes, but I have to be honest to
myself that every human beings do make mistakes. So I will also discuss about his failure as

a leader to this country. First of all, it is stated that the reason Dr Mahathir was sacked from
UMNO by Tunku Abdul Rahman was because he provoke and did not agree with the
philosophy of Tunku Rahman and try to stop Tunku from doing his job. Here shows that Dr
Mahathir lack of integrity and desperation. Apart from that, Dr Mahathir fail to defend Islam
as he fails to enforce hudud law in Malaysia. Even worse, he even did not take it seriously
when comes to hudud law as he once state that muslim that steal things will be without hands
but if Chinese or indian steal they will be punished differently. This kind of statement is very
wrong as he is insulting the Islamic law. In other cases, Dr Mahathir was involved in a
dilemma with prime minister Dato Seri Najib Razak recently when both of them were
arguing about certain issues regarding Najibs leadership. In my opinion Dr Mahathir once
again try to cause problems as he did with Tunku Abdul Rahman. Dr Mahathir seem to bring
up the murder of Mongolian woman, Altantuya Sharibu recently. The only question about this
issue is that Altantuya been killed in 2006 and why does Dr Mahathir try to bring that issue
now? Some said that he did for his personal reason. Anyhow he should have fight for this
issue at the right time and not now. Some suggest that he did that to bring Najib down as a
prime minister. As a good leader, he should have did this long time ago. This causes anger to
so many people especially our prime minister himself. My personal feeling on this was anger
and disappointment because he can stop from all this from happening but he chose to keep
quiet at the beginning.
In political view, we can say that the biggest rival of Dr Mahathir was Dato Seri
Anwar Ibrahim. Anwar was Mahathirs deputy minister when he was our prime minister.
There were so many views on how the two separate. But all that happen is part of the political
dilemma. This is because, until now there is no proof that Anwar Ibrahim was involved in
sodomy and corruption as been accused by government. Some opinion state that Mahathir did
it for his personal reason. Dr Mahathir also once said in his speech that he simply punish
Anwar Ibrahim for the crime that he did not commit.i am not talking without evidence here
because anyone can watch the footage in youtube. From this I can say that Dr Mahathir had
use his power for his personal beneficial and this is very wrong and not ethical. Accusing
someone with crime that they did not commit is something brutal and no humanity. Same
goes to our current prime minister, Najib Razak who also punish Anwar by prisoning him for
the sodomy case with Saiful Bukhari. We can see that politician tend to take any action in
order to protect their political position. We as a citizen should not follow this kind of attitude
in our daily life as this is a sin that cannot be forgiven. I would strongly suggest that
Malaysian citizen should eliminate this kind of politician from being our prime minister. How
can we do that? We should use our power to select a good leader during election. But
nowadays people lose their trust in democratic system because the previous election ended up
with so many crisis especially immigrant who were given authority to take part in the voting.
The immigrant were given identity card and were send to the election booth for voting. This
kind of activity causes problems and effect the result of the voting. But when Mahathir lead
this country, this kind of crisis did not happen. This shows that Mahathir is atleast sincere in
the election system.
As a conclusion, on my behalf I would say that Dr Mahathir is just an ordinary human
beings but as a leader, he is one of the greatest leader in the world. We as a Malaysian should
be proud of what he had done to our country. I am proud to say that Dr Mahathir was our
prime minister for almost 22 years. There were so many good things happen to our country

during his reign. The following leaders should follow his footstep in certain issues to make
our country well know globally. He would always look after the farewell of the citizen and at
the same time he develop this country. Nowadays, many leaders fail to do so as they only
focus on developing the country. When Dr Mahathir announced his retirement in National
UMNO meeting that been watched by the whole nation, almost every Malaysian felt the
sadness. There were a favourite song that was frequently aired in local television and radio
station, Di Mana akan Ku Cari Ganti? translated as Where Can We Find Replacement?
when Dr Mahathir step down as the prime minister in 2003. He was also known as a genuine
leader who has the heart of the people and very hard to be replaced. Younger generation
should follow certain of his actions in order to succeed in life. He was a doctor and managed
his time to involve in politics. What we can learn from this is a good time management can
lead to success. Besides that, hardwork is the key to success and everyone should believe that
by looking at the achievement of Dr Mahathir in his entire life. Apart from that, everyone
should be brave enough to face obstacles in life and fight for their rights. Dr Mahathir was a
brave man that he stops at nothing when defending Palestine from Israel. We should follow
his action to step up and speak what is right and what is wrong no matter where you are. Dr
Mahathir were very caring and supportive to the malays. He even criticize malays because
they were not competitive and always need someone to lead them. His famous poem was
Melayu Mudah Lupa. Everyone loves it even the message in that poem is bit deep but it
shows that Dr Mahathir always care for his people. Every leader shoul follow this good
values because being a leader is not an easy task. It is narrated that the leader is the easiest
one to enter the paradise and the leader is also the easiest one to enter the hell. We as a
Malaysian should be proud of Dr Mahathir due to his contributions to this country and as a
muslim we should always pray to God that Allah guide him to enter the paradise. This is the
least we can do to acknowledge him as our leader. As to end this discussion, I would love to
quote one of my favourite quotes of Dr Mahathir, If you want to be a leader, you must have
ideas. If not youre simply a follower. Thank you so much for your time for reading this and
all praise to Allah for giving me this opportunity to write about our great leader.