Mahathir bin Mohamad (redirected from Mahatir Mohammad)

Mahathir bin Mohamad (mähä`tĭr bĭn mōhäm`äd), 1925–, Malaysian political leader. A doctor by training, he first entered parliament in 1964 and rose in the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), but lost his seat and was expelled from UMNO in 1969 after criticizing Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. Subsequently readmitted into UMNO, he was reelected to parliament in 1974 and held several ministerial posts in the 1970s, including deputy prime minister beginning in 1976. Prime minister of a UMNO-led National Front coalition government after 1981, Mahathir sought to make Malaysia an industrial nation and develop Malay businesses, and promoted nonindividualistic "Asian values" while often denouncing the West. Although Malaysia made enormous and rapid economic progress under Mahathir, political stability was maintained by not tolerating dissent and restricting political freedoms, and his government was denounced for human-rights abuses. He retired as prime minister in 2003. Out of office he has continued to be outspoken and sometimes critical of the Malaysian government.

---

Mahathir bin Mohamad

 in full Datuk Seri Mahathir bin Mohamad

(born Dec. 20, 1925, Alor Setar, Kedah, Malay states) Malaysian politician, prime minister (1981–2003). The son of a schoolmaster, Mahathir studied medicine and worked as a government medical officer before entering parliament in 1964, where he became a forceful advocate of policies to ensure economic success for ethnic Malays. Once prime minister, he was reelected repeatedly; under his leadership Malaysia achieved one of the most prosperous economies in Southeast Asia, rising literacy rates, and increased life expectancies. An economic downturn in the late 1990s precipitated a split between Mahathir and his deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, whom Mahathir dismissed in 1998; opposition to this action and other policies was suppressed. Following the September 11 attacks of 2001 in the U.S., he offered his support in the global war against terrorism, but he opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and was noted for his frequent criticisms of the West.