ABSTRACT
On 31 October 2003, after twenty-two years at the helm as prime minister
of Malaysia, Dr Mahathir Mohamad stepped down. His had been the longest premiership in Malaysia’s history. His had also been the most dis-
cussed, debated, praised by local commentators and academics, and – less
often – criticized and vilified. There had even been talk, fueled by com-
ments made by Mahathir himself, that he would never step down. Indeed,
the succession process, triggered by Mahathir’s ‘‘retirement’’ announce-
ment at the mid-2002 United Malays National Organization (UMNO)
General Assembly, has aptly been termed a ‘‘slow motion’’ one (Kessler
2004: 15). The handing over of power to his deputy, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi,
appeared to be smooth and unproblematic. It seemed in keeping with
previous transfers of such power in Malaysia. But, as with previous succes-
sions, much more had been happening behind the scenes.1 Indeed, Abdullah
was Mahathir’s fourth deputy, with three of his previous deputies, Musa
Hitam, Ghafar Baba and Anwar Ibrahim, all having had their tenure end
under quite acrimonious circumstances. Musa, his first deputy, resigned in
1986 amid increasing disaffection with Mahathir’s leadership, which led to the UMNO crisis of 1987. Ghafar, appointed by Mahathir to replace Musa
in 1986, was in turn challenged and defeated by Anwar in 1993. Anwar
lasted five years and was dismissed by Mahathir in 1998. He was subse-
quently imprisoned, having been convicted on number of (widely believed to
be trumped-up) charges of sexual misconduct and abuse of power.
