My dream of meeting a great man, Tun Mahathir

Today, I achieved one of my dreams.

It has always been a dream of mine to meet Tun Dr Mahathir live! Today, my dreams came true. 

I arrived at Dewan Agong Tuanku Cansellor (DATC), UiTM Shah Alam at 7.30am with my daughter. She had read Tun Mahathir's book and was interested to listen to his speech. Tun Dr Mahathir was invited to speak on 'Transformasi minda penyelidik muda'.

Whilst waiting for the programme to start, they showed a video of Tun Mahathir's biography taken from the History Channel. A lot of his story was from what we've already read in his book but there were photos and more personal touch. The most interesting aspect for me was the fact that he was a medical doctor; the first Malay doctor to open his own clinic in Alor Setar. He has the attributes of a true doctor, compassionate and the passion to treat and help his patients. He said that some of his patients were poor and he would never turn down a patient just because they couldn't pay, because that would be wrong. To me, that is the true nature of any doctor. A person can't do medicine if they do not have a small part of them that says, they do it to help people.



Finally, Tun Mahathir appeared and as he began his speech, the audience fell silent. The 5000 capacity hall was filled up by lecturers, staff members and students. I don't know anyone else in Malaysia who could still pull a crowd after retirement. He gave an hour long speech but when he said he thought it was a good idea to end his speech, it felt like he started only a minute ago.


As he walked down the aisle accompanied by UiTM vice chancellor, people crowded around him to take photos, asked for autograph and to shake his hand. I felt sad...I was only 8 years old when he became the prime minister. My mom was constantly praising him especially since he was a good looking man. He was young, energetic and full of ideas. He introduced the metric system and got rid of the old colonial measuring system, he told us to look towards the east instead of constantly blind following the west. He was brave enough to state the obvious problems faced by the Malays, for us to reflect upon ourselves and our weaknesses in order to change and be better. He made us understood history and the reasons behind the Malays being left behind in terms of education and economy.


His intentions were not to blame the British Colonialist and neither was it to create hatred or resentment for those who emigrated to Malaysia to seek better lives and richness for themselves and their families. It was to make the Malays realize their position, their situation, their weaknesses, their complacency and to change their mentality and behavior. Sometimes only those who truly care and love us will be honest enough to point out our faults and tell us the most painful truth about ourselves. 


Every race in this world has a story, a history and they share some cultural norms and values. They even share some similar traits...although individuals may differ and every individual have their own strengths and weaknesses but every particular race often have stereotypes. The younger generation often pose the question regarding their ancestry. They often question the origin of the 'Malay' itself. It is difficult to find a satisfactory answer and even the experts differ in their opinions as to the history of the Malay origin but I guess like any other race; these things evolve with time. The English origin are a mixture of Anglo-Saxon, Danes, Normans and over time, there has been inter-marriage with Welsh, Scottish and other European nations. It is even harder to determine the origin of Americans who were all immigrants from Europe, South America and other countries.


At the end of the day, we are all part of the human race but we do know that a particular race has similar features, collective identity and they share a history. History is one of the most important aspect of knowing who we are. Our own family history gives us knowledge of any inherited diseases or specific talents. By knowing our family history, we get a sense of who we are and a certain standard to uphold. My grandfather was a translator in the courts of Teluk Intan, he could speak English, Dutch, Tamil, Malay and Japanese; so we know from where my brother got his talent from. My great grandmother was a midwife or also known as 'bidan' and maybe that is where my interest in medicine came from.


Our knowledge of the Malay history and history of Malaya will make us understand where we were and where we ought to be. We should understand Islamic history from the birth of Islam i.e. the time of Prophet Muhammad SAW and until the demise of the Caliphate in 1924. That knowledge would make us aware of many political events and reasons why things are the way they are today and how did the West suddenly became a superpower from being in the dark ages.

If we are unaware of our history...if our future generation are illiterate with regards to the past then, they will be at risk of being manipulated by those who are attempting to re-write history and re-interpret things. 

The past is what we were; everything that is good, bad, mistakes and all. We need to face up to the past and reflect upon things in order to learn from them. The future is where we want to be and we need to identify what we want to be, what kind of people do we want to be? What do we wish to achieve? The present is where we make those changes... changes from the weaknesses that we have identified in our past and the changes that we need to make in order to achieve the things we want to achieve.


I wish that the Malays would first identify where we went wrong. We went wrong by viewing the occupier as being superior; that the British were superior than us. The British might have been superior in their military power and technology but they were no more superior in the capability to use their minds. Allah SWT has given all human beings a mind to think...we can all use it intelligently.


Secondly, we went wrong in accepting the British secular system as an official system. By accepting the secular system, we have isolated Islam from our daily lives...secularism means religion has no role to play in political life meaning, in anything that involves ruling and making laws in society. By doing so, we have shot ourselves in the foot because we are saying that Allah's presence is limited. He is limited only in our worship, in our personal activities but in society and how we govern ourselves and conduct our life outside of worship, Allah is somehow absent and that He somehow cease to exist in our minds.

Even though the British failed in converting the Malay Muslims to Christianity but they succeeded in making us 'secular'.

So, what is my dream for a Malay future...

To reject secular values. To know that Allah SWT is never absent and he never cease to exist in whatever we do. We could be sending our kids to school, waiting for a train, going to the bank, trying to buy a house or a car, looking for a job. He is there at all times and for everything we do, Allah SWT has given us guidance and rules on how these things should be conducted. Hence, whatever we can do within our individual capacity, we should be doing it and whatever we can't, we should be demanding for a system that will help us to worship Allah SWT and not a system that forces us to commit haram e.g. riba (interest)

Throw away this feeling of  'inferiority'. There is nothing great about any other race anywhere in this world. We are all human beings and we have been given the faculty of mind. It is up to us on how we want to use it. It doesn't mean that we should go about being arrogant but it means that we should be sure of who we are. We are Muslims and as Muslims, we are knowledgeable, hard-working, compassionate and obedient only to Allah SWT.