Sometimes I Find It Hard to Always Hate Dr Mahatir

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

In 1975 we had no proper toilet in our kampong. As a small kid i was always fearful to walk 20m across the small bush laden path to the jamban - there everyone in the family drop our daily excreta into the shithole. I was terrified of the stink, of the flies, and of dropping into the shithole. On rainy days we had to hold our poo or simply do it on newspaper like my dog does today.

I recall as a child then the Prime Minister was a soft spoken Tun Hussein Onn. I recall the adults talked about a rising star from Alor Star who is a radical, leftist, champions bumiputra rights.. and could potentially eradicate secular Chinese education totally.

Anyway the only thing i remember was everybody in the village was a construction worker. The provision shop was very kind as it offers credit terms to every family. My dad perpetually owes the shop $100 to $200 but as long as he paid off regularly there was no issue.

In 20 years, Dr Mahatir industrialised the country, transformed the country from one where people lived on trees and poo into shithole... to one where everybody in the village live in semi-Ds or bungalows today. The once worthless ancestral land suddenly becomes wealth. The bicycles we rode on are replaced by MYVIs and Toyota Avanzas. All thanks to the industries that set up plants nearby and guess who brought in all these investments? In those days the furthest place on earth people had been to was Singapore. Today i see my childhood friend posting images world over of places they have visited. They all have 3 to 4 kids, none are jobless, and none complain about pressures in life. They spend their weekend on fishing trips, a drive to nearby resorts or visiting friends and family.

Mahatir transformed Malaysia into a country that provided a foundation for Malaysian Chinese to excel... to get a scholarship from the Singapore government. Mahatir brought pride to Malaysians during the Asian Financial crisis and threw sand onto greedy currency manipulators like George Soros and Temasek. Mahatir is the only leader in Asia that stood against the standard prescription of the west (which we now witness the demise of Western economic supremacy in America, etc) and proved that he is right. Even though i have been across the Straits for most part of my life, i am eternally greatful to the visionary leader in Mahatir that is irreplaceable by anyone in Malaysia.


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