Thank you, social media, for exposing the true Tun M to me
The Third Force
So here’s the thing.
I was a big, Big, BIG fan of Tun Mahathir.
“Was”.
I’m now 41 years of age, meaning that when I first (thought I) had some sort of understanding on what a country’s government does, it was sometime in the mid to late 90’s when I was coming to the tail-end of my teenage years.
But my admiration of his leadership actually came much earlier.
As a kid, I marvelled as my family drove over the Penang Bridge, at that time the 3rd longest bridge in the world (or was it in Asia?).
Not to mention saluting him for realizing the PLUS highway, which reduced our balik kampung time to Kedah by 5 to 6 hours.
And, when I first saw a glimpse of the first Proton Saga. I wanted Bapak to buy one so badly, but he had already bought a Nissan Sunny 130Y a year before the Saga was launched. So no, didn’t have one at home.
Then, fast forward to the mid and late 90’s, I felt proud as Malaysia was home to the world’s tallest building(s), the Petronas Twin Towers.
Around that same time, I felt proud that we were the only country in SEA to peg our currency from being further susceptible to speculators during the economic crisis. And that we refused the IMF loan. And that we were technically the first country to come out of the crisis.
And how I thought he had to make a very difficult decision to jail his deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, for purported ‘sodomy’ and also for ‘quietly conspiring with the US in a plot to overthrow him.’ I also said ‘padan muka’ to all the Reformasi protesters when they were beaten and hosed down by the FRU for going against the government.
And on the final year before the turn of the century, my admiration hit its peak when my idol Michael Schumacher came to our shores to race his Ferrari on our spanking new F1 circuit.
Special mention too on how he handled Stephen Sackur on BBC HardTalk.
So, yes, I was a BIG fan of Tun Mahathir…
