He only wanted to be a clerk
At his office I counted ten honorary doctorate degrees. Not that he needed them because long before he became somebody, he had DR attached to his name by virtue of his medical profession. The degrees are an appreciation of a man who rose from hawking cakes at the local market to become the most influential […]
At his office I counted ten honorary doctorate degrees. Not that he needed them because long before he became somebody, he had DR attached to his name by virtue of his medical profession. The degrees are an appreciation of a man who rose from hawking cakes at the local market to become the most influential leader that Malaysia has produced. However, his life and work are subjects of which doctoral dissertations are written. This is because they have depth, breadth and substance and warrant analysis from different dimensions. Further, his style is challenging enough to call for the re-examination of Stogdill, Fieldler, Bass, Weber and Skinnerian leadership theories.
The youngest of nine children, his mother nicknamed him Chedet – a name that later became his penname – and was pampered by the remaining members of the family. His father, being the first Malay headmaster of an English school, taught him how to read early and was strict with the rules. One of which is not playing outside the house.
But Mahathir’s stable life and those of his compatriots was thrown out of equilibrium during the Second World War. The Japanese occupied the country, forced Japanese to be the language of instruction in schools and literally threw government workers out of employment. Mahathir endured and registered at the Japanese school but later dropped out. Life became a struggle. He told his mother he would look for a job. He applied to the Chinese shop owners but was roundly rejected because the Chinese would not hire Malay. Then Mahathir did what failure to land a job inspires: entrepreneurship. He told his friends that they could sell coffee and cakes. The friends agreed that it was a beautiful idea. But when Mahathir went to a Japanese mall to set up shop, he was thrown out – literally. Undaunted, he dusted himself and his cakes and moved to a local market. He worked hard and the business flourished, which he later sold for a tidy profit.
Mahathir moved up the rungs and replaced the coffee business with a fruit stall. Again, he made a success out of it. However, while doing this business he discovered that the Malays were far behind in every aspect of business and development compared to other races. Though still young, the businesses had toughened and matured him. By now the ambition of becoming a clerk was dead and buried. He wanted to do something more sublime: help his people out of poverty.
Meanwhile, in 1945 Japanese surrendered and the British returned. Mahathir continued his studies at Kolej Sultan Abdul Hamid and continued to excel. And due to his now big ambition, he realized that he had to study doubly hard. Immediately after his secondary education he became active in politics and led his friends to their first protest against the British for introducing the Malayan Union, a contraption aimed at neutralizing the power of Malay rulers. When UMNO, the Malay party, was set up the following year in 1946, Mahathir was one of the first to register as a member.
At this stage he realized that to help his people, he had to become somebody important in the society and the professions that could guarantee such position are law and medicine. But he was more interested in being a lawyer. He however, had no money to further his education so he took a clerical job – his first dream!
At his free time, he wrote political articles to English language newspapers under the pen name C.H.E Det – the nick name his mother gave him. The editors gladly paid for his insightful comments. Then a scholarship opportunity to study medicine at King Edward VII Medical College in Singapore came along but Mahathir wanted to study law not medicine.
To be continued