Sixty odd years after Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad first deliberated on politics as a student and almost three decades after he assumed the office of the Prime Minister of Malaysia in July 1981, the nation is still largely defined by his world views and actions. Barry Wain’s Malaysian Maverick will, for a long time to come, be the best companion for a painful national soul-searching for Malaysia.
This is because it brings together an impressive amount of seldom disputed facts. Faced with them now, seven years after Dr Mahathir retired, most Malaysians will find it hard to ignore their significance: the present is the consequence of the past.
