next two hours, I explained to him how
the market works. A financial market doesn’t work like a mini-market;
there are specialities and peculiarities.
I thought that if he really wanted to solve
the problem, he needed to understand
the details. Of course, Tun Mahathir has
the capacity to understand details.
During the two hours, he said very
little. He just listened. Then at 7pm, he
told me to stop. He requested that I write
down everything that I had told him and
meet him again after Subuh prayers the
next day. So I went back to my room,
skipped dinner, and wrote everything
that I had told him. At about 7am in the
morning, I gave him my notes. When we
met again after lunch, he told me then
that he had read my notes and that he
understood the situation.
So I asked him, “Now that you understand, Sir, is there anything else that
I can do?”
He said, “Yes, let’s see how we can
solve the problem.”
And the rest is history. This is all
documented in his book*, by the way.
Following that meeting, I used to
meet him regularly at his house and his
office. We worked together on the solution. The very important point I want to
make is that there were only the two of
us working. The unorthodox measures
that we implemented on 1st September
1998 was the work of two persons, Tun
Mahathir and me. There was nobody
else involved. The Cabinet was against
it, the Central Bank was against it, the
Treasury was against it, and the EPU was
against it. Everybody was against it.
The measures were definitely unconventional and very unorthodox.
Interestingly, whenever I went to Tun’s
house for our discussion, he would ask
his family to leave the room. He told his
wife and children that he was discussing
matters of the state and that they could
not be present. He was very particular
about affairs of state, and would not allow his children or other family members
to be privy to such discussions. That’s
the character of the man.
After we had implemented the measures, he asked me to return to Bank
Negara to make sure that everything
would be all right. My role as advisor was
The unorthodox
measures that we
implemented on 1st
September 1998 was the
work of two persons,
Tun Mahathir and me.
There was nobody
else involved. The
Cabinet was against
it, the Central Bank
was against it, the
Treasury was against
it, and the EPU was
against it. Everybody
was against it.
also to make sure the reforms in GLCs
took place. But I have this feeling, from
my four years’ experience, that Tun
Mahathir basically used me as a reality
check. He would pass to me most of the
proposals he received from Ministers,
business people, GLCs, corporates, and
KSUs (Secretaries-General) and asked,
“What do you think?” Then I’ll quickly
prepare a brief on the upside and downside, a quick reality check.”
On working with three different Prime
Ministers
“It’s true that I was privileged to have
worked under three great Prime Ministers but I’m not the only one. There
are many others also who have worked
under different Prime Ministers.
The Prime Ministers may have their
differences but one trait that they have
in common is sincerity. All three of
them are sincere. (Tun) Mahathir, (Tun
Abdullah) Pak Lah and (Dato’ Seri)
Najib are very sincere and indeed very
generous.
Another aspect that struck me is
that all three of them are real Malaysians. There is no racism in them, they
are also not religious ideologues.
We are very lucky to have three
Prime Ministers in a row who are intent on reducing social injustice. They
know that there is still so much social
injustice in Malaysia. For instance, in
some parts of Malaysia, a child has to
walk ten kilometres to go to school
and ten kilometres to return home.
Our Prime Ministers have built roads
to make it easier for children to attend
school. They have a lot of passion and
compassion when it comes to reducing
social injustice. Those are their common traits.
Of course, no two people are the
same. Each one has their own idiosyncrasies, their own style. Tun Mahathir is
very punctual in terms of time. During
the crisis, I saw him six days a week (in
those days, we worked on Saturdays)
but each meeting took no longer than
fifteen minutes. That’s it. You say what
you have to say then out you go. Pak
Lah was more generous. If you went to
see him, he was willing to spend more
time with you. Dato’ Seri Najib is similar
to Tun Mahathir, but not as strict.
In terms of delegation, all three of
them delegate work. If there’s a problem, you went and met them. They
didn’t say “Do It” and then looked over
your shoulder.
So I believe that there are many
common characteristics among the
three Prime Ministers with some differences as to leadership style and
emphasis.”
*A Doctor In The House by Tun Dr. Mahathir
Mohamad
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