Quora Answer: Is Mahathir bin Mohamad Islamic or Secular by Ideology?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Is Mahathir bin Mohamad Islamic or secular by ideology?”

Mahathir bin Mohamad is a political chameleon; in that he is whatever is needed to get voted in.  Early in his career, he decided to become “Malay”, despite the fact that he is Tamil, and cast himself as a Malay nationalist.  He wrote “The Malay Dilemma”, championing the primacy and supremacy of the Malays.  He supported Perkasa, a militant racist Malay supremacist organisation then.

He established JAKIM with a billion-ringgit budget, and became a champion of Islam when it would get him votes.  He cast himself as more Islamic than PAS, and proclaimed that Malaysia was an Islamic state.  He came back as leader of the Reformasi movement to remove the people he put in power, and dismantle the UMNO that he built, UMNO Baru, which was registered in 1987, after the original UMNO was deregistered.  He is an opportunist, and a survivor.  If tomorrow, supporting the Ku Klux Klan would guarantee him votes, he would be their Grand Dragon.