Mahathir Mohamed, unquestionably Malaysia’s most successful politician and impactful leader, is still in the game at the ripe old age of 98. He is a strident anti-imperialist and an unapologetic ethnocentric nationalist who, in his heyday, was loved by Malaysians of all races. In fact, he is lauded in the Arab world and all across Asia for his outspokenness and statesmanship in championing regional causes. Equally, he has been despised and derided by all Malaysian communities, Malays included. He is not well-liked in the West and is even seen as an exemplary antisemite.
In a recent engaging and wide-ranging interview on episode 65 the Keluar Sekejap podcast, Mahathir showed that he has lost neither charm and charisma, nor his wile and guile. I learnt many things about the man in watching this episode attentively, but the most salient insight was into his political means. Mahathir is a man of many generalizations, essentialisms and simplifications. Key giveaways about his underlying approach are found in these ideas exposed in the interview-
1) Successful Malays are the exception proves the rule (12:22)
2) We have to characterize the Jews, not by the just minority, but in terms of the majority, who unquestioningly support Israel (1:58:36).
Indeed, his is a heuristic approach – a method of reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making based on approximation. As evidenced by his career highlights and pitfalls, it is a method that can be efficient and effective, but that can also be prone to error, bias, and failure. Here is a list of what I suggest are Mahathir’s primary heuristics, each of which is presented along with some associated secondary generalizations –
1. Malays are Lazy (Non-Malays are industrious)
2. Non-Malays are Immigrants (Non-Malays don’t want to Assimilate, There is a communal zero-sum game, and The Malays are in danger of losing primacy on their Tanah Melayu)
3 The West is Imperialist (Malaysia should look East, China is not necessarily a threat)
4. Jews Rule the World (Jews are Zionists, )
5. Mahathir is always right (Anwar is unsuitable, Najib is unconscionable, Badawi is incapable, Mahathir does no wrong)
The Koboi Project 