TITLE : MAHATHIR PRADIGM SHIFT: THE MAN BEHIND THE VISION.

Preface

THROUGH successive trials and tribulations of his well-charted course in life, of which he has managed to weather all storms, Dato' Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has emerged as an utterly indispensable leader in steering the country's course through the threshold of the 21 st century. To his flock comprising Malaysians from all walks of life, he has always stressed on the need for willingness to accept changes for a better life. However, the changes advocated by him in his dynamic stewardship of the country are not the hasty and ill-planned ones as adopted, for example, in Mikhail Gorbachev's doomed Perestroika or Glasnost, but rather akin to the effective modernisation programme introduced by China's Deng Xiao ping to his most populous country in the world. Both Mahathir and Deng are notable leaders from the Far East in their own times and, whether wittingly or unwittingly, have subscribed to the Eastern concept of gradual improvement as manifested in the Japanese kaizen principle. In its essence, such philosophy calls for "improvement to come not in one great leap but by a succession of continuous little steps".

Whether we realise it or not, most of us East Asians have long held principles of such sort. Taken in isolation, each of the moves taken by Mahathir throughout his political career might seem just like certain responses to particular developments. However, the unswerving consistent of his conviction and steadfastness in the face of various challenges cannot but help convince most observers that he really is serious about bringing about a paradigm shift, as opposed to a quantum leap.

Aziz Zariza Ahmad