Mahathir vs Najib: new memoirs add more thrill to Malaysian politics, lift lid on power struggles
- The revelations in ‘Chasing Hope, The Struggle Continues for a New Malaysia’ suggest the two-time PM’s political duel with his staunch rival is not over yet
- The book, which details the country’s past two years of political turmoil, is among a slew of titles including one by Najib’s brother to hit the shelves recently
Mahathir, 96, was the focus of some worry in Malaysia earlier in December after he was briefly hospitalised for unspecified reasons.
The two-time prime minister was discharged from the National Heart Institute after undergoing “a series of medical investigations,” the hospital said last week.
Sprightly as ever before that episode, he had earlier in the month provoked controversy with the launch of his new memoirs which lifted the lid on his tumultuous second stint as premier from 2018 to 2020.
The country’s leader from 1981 to 2003, Mahathir assumed office again following 2018’s polls in which the multiracial Pakatan Harapan that he was part of defeated the scandal-tainted Najib and his long-ruling coalition.
But 20 months later, a series of political manoeuvrings saw Mahathir and Pakatan Harapan lose power to an alliance led by Najib’s United Malays National Organisation (Umno).