Mahathir's Less than Fond Opinion of the West and his Realignment of Foreign Policies...

Mahathir's critical opinion and feelings about the West and the Caucasians are probably well-known to most people. But despite of this it did not stop him from studying the West and acknowledging their strengths and what could be learnt from them. In one whole chapter ( Chapter 30) he wrote about the Europeans, their history and origins, much as he had discussed the origins of the Malays and the history of the Malay Archipelago in earlier chapters.

Reading this chapter enabled pakdokter to see the Europeans in another light. Mahathir must have read a lot to come out with this piece. It has made pakdokter's search for more knowledge so much easier.

Iqra'........Baca lah.......as we are always told.

Unfortunately, many comments about his book on facebook and other sites were only full of hatred and rebuttals without arguments. So much for Iqra'.......

Chapter 32 devoted to his rationale for realigning our foreign policies. It may have looked foolish to many that he gave so much energy to establish links with 3rd World colonies of the British and then to the Islamic countries. But he has achieved recognition from so many of them.

During pakdokter's safari into the desert of Morocco way back in the 80's, pakdokter could not forget how the villagers in the deep south of the Moroccan desert immediately mentioned Mahathir's name upon being told that we were from Malaysia. A friend of pakdokter who was on holiday in Cairo during the recent uprising was caught in the confrontation between the two opposing cliques and when told that he is a Malaysian, they shouted to him that they wanted Mahathir and not Mubarak for Egypt!