Pakdokter's copy of Mahathir's Memoirs was defective - the pages from Chapters 5 to 6 were missing thus depriving pakdokter on Mahathir's narration of his infatuation and later disillusionment with the British? ( this is pakdokter's guess based on the few pages available from chapter 5). The title of Chapter 6 suggested a story on his budding enterpreneurial experiments during the war times.
Chapters 7 and 8 should be an elective history textbook for our schools. The two short and easily read chapters covered comprehensively the political history of our country. Pakdokter must admit that pakdokter learnt so much from these 2 short chapters. Pakdokter's earlier readings of the few Malaysian novels written by Rani Manicka ( The Japanese Lover), Tan Twan Eng's "The Gift of Rain" and Tash Aw's " the Harmony Silk Factory" and " the Map of the Invisible World", all helped picqued pakdokter's interest in Malayan political history. All these books had stories about lives of Chinese families during the Japanese Occupation. PakMahathir's Memoirs helped put the finishing touches to some of the missing notes in pakdokter's mind.
In fact, in Chapter 3 which Mahathir tiltled " I Am a Malay" - one also get a good discourse on history of much earlier years of the Malay Archipelago.
Looking back, pakdokter's history lessons in STAR was about the great civilisations of the Middle East and India ( Hanging Garden of Babylon, the Mohendojaro in the Indus Valley etc etc....) Unless pakdokter's memory has failed, pakdokter could not remember any Malayan political history being taught then.
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