Tun Dr Mahathir Blog
Blog Address: http://www.chedet.com/
Dr Mahathir is multi-talented, as he is known for engaging himself in carpentry and while studying medicine, at King Edward VII Medical College in Singapore, he edited a medical student magazine called `The Cauldron’. He also contributed to The Straits Times under the pseudonym Che Det, which was his nickname among his family members and friends.
Being once the longest serving Prime Minister in Malaysia and also Asia, he played a pivotal role in engineering Malaysia’s rapid modernization and its Look East policy. He is also well known for his strong criticisms and an outspoken critic of Western civilisation and those who viewed Islam as being a religion that promotes violence.
He is married to Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali, his former classmate and the couple has five children.
During his tenure as the Prime Minister, he was responsible for pulling in an attracting high-tech manufacturing, financial and telecommunications and introduced highways in bridging the transportation divide and to make sure even the remote areas are accessible by roads.
Dr Mahathir was also responsible for building the Multimedia Super Corridor, the new administrative capital Putrajaya, the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and one of the highest buildings in the world the Petronas Twin Towers.
For his efforts to promote economic development of Malaysia, Dr Mahathir has been granted the soubriquet of Bapa Pemodenan (Father of Modernisation).
Dr Mahathir also said Malaysians need to be creative to progress in information technology to push the country towards the next level of the communication and information age.
"We need more Malaysians to believe that they too can be creative. There is a need for us to believe in ourselves, to believe we can do things that others can do, sometimes we can do things better than others can do.
Dr Mahathir also said at the same function that the world’s economy was moving from an industrial age into the communications and information age and this requires new thinking, innovative thinking, new applications that involve more and more information and more knowledge.
"It is therefore important for us to realize that we need to think differently to use new skills and new technology," he said.
Certainly, the fourth Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad will always have a place in all of our hearts, with his enthusiasm and ideas in driving Malaysia forward.