COURSEWORK 1 
BOOK REVIEW 
 
 
MALAYSIAN FOREIGN POLICY IN THE MAHATHIR ERA  
1981‐2003 DILEMMAS OF DEVELOPMENT 
 
 
BY 
 
KARMINDER SINGH DHILLON 
 
11 FEBRUARY 2011 
 
 
 
 
 
STUDENT NAME  MOHD EL ZAHRUL BIN MOHD RIFIN 
 
STUDENT ID  AGG100007 
   
COURSE  RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 
 
COURSE LECTURER  DR. TREVOR PARFITT 
   
MASTERS  STRATEGIC & DEFENCE STUDIES 
 
 Coursework 1 Book Review

Malaysian Foreign Policy in the Mahathir Era 1981-2003

Dilemmas of Development

Karminder Singh Dhillon

National University of Singapore Press

Singapore

2009

Pages 300

Table of Contents
Page

1 Introduction ………………………………………………… 1

2 Overview ………………………………………………… 2

3 Analysis ………………………………………………… 3

4 Conclusion ………………………………………………… 6
    1 
 
     
Coursework 1 Book Review

Malaysian Foreign Policy in the Mahathir Era 1981-2003 Dilemmas of

Development
Karminder Singh Dhillon
National University of Singapore Press
Singapore
2009
Pages 300

1.0 Introduction

The birth of a nation gives life to a multitude of areas or concerns

that a nation and its government have to contend with. One of these would be the

relations with other nations and the policies governing these set of decorum.

Before delving further, it would be helpful to briefly look into the key terms or

points that the book revolves around, namely foreign policy, Malaysia and

Mahathir Mohamad.

Foreign Policy simply put refers to any “activity whereby state

actors act, react and interact” and “a state’s relation to the outside world “(Evans

& Newnham 1998: 179)

Malaysia, a former British colony gained independence from Britain

in 1957 gave birth to the Federation of Malaya and later formed into Malaysia in
    2 
 
     
September 1963 with the joining of Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak along

with Singapore (which ceded from Malaysia in 1965).

Mahathir Mohamad is the 4th Prime Minister (PM). His tenure of 22

years makes him Malaysia’s longest serving PM. Focusing on the period which

he held office from 1981 till 2003, the author aims to deconstruct and identify the

sources and driving force of Malaysian Foreign Policy under the Mahathir

Administration and to some extent the outcome of those policy initiative.

2.0 Overview

The book steers through three main themes of the sources of

Malaysian Foreign Policy (MFP) cited as the Idiosyncratic Factor, Domestic

Factor and External Factor. Dhillon then demonstrates the interaction of these

sources in producing the output of MFP; this is spread across seven selected

foreign policy initiatives cited as

ƒ Buy British Last

ƒ Anti-Commonwealth

ƒ Look East

ƒ Third World Spokesmanship

ƒ Regional engagement

ƒ Islamic Posturing
    3 
 
     
ƒ Commercial and Developmental Diplomacy

This review shall consider Karminder Singh’s arguments and attempt to analyse

his findings and weigh them analytically.

3.0 Analysis

Karminder Singh Dhillon frames his research on the comparative

tradition of looking into foreign policy. This approach places emphasis on first to

identify the sources of foreign policy, then catagorise them and finally prioritise

these sources so as to provide a structure to be applied in observing foreign

policy output in action.

The author proposes that the Malaysian Foreign Policy under the

Mahathir administration was the interaction of three main factors, namely the

idiosyncratic factor, domestic factor and external factor. This stance moves away

from the beaten path of solely attributing Malaysian Foreign Policy (MFP) to a

single factor either to Mahathir himself, domestic or internal factors or purely

external factors. Unlike Chandran Jeshurun’s Malaysia: Fifty Years of Diplomacy

1957-2007 where it is insinuated that after Mahathir came into power the primary

source of foreign policy rested in the Prime Minister’s Department (Jeshurun

2008:230). Dhillon on the other hand aims to dispel or invalidate previous

    4 
 
     
attempts at defining or attributing MFP to a single factor (Dhillon 2009: 8). In

other words, it attempts to quash the “great man theory” of history that attributes

outcomes to a single idiosyncratic factor namely Mahathir and his personal and

political nature. This view, to some extent, is shared by Johan Saravanamuttu as

expressed in, Malaysia’s Foreign Policy, The First Fifty Years: Alignment,

Neutralism, Islamism, where a leader is bound by “socio-economic connectivity

with previous periods of foreign policy” and “constrained by societal and

economic imperatives both internally and externally” (Saravanamuttu 2010: 184

– 185).

Idiosyncrasies are termed as “behavioral characteristic peculiar to

an individual”. The author defines idiosyncrasy in terms of individual trait, political

ideology and political leadership and argues that Mahathir’s penchant for writing

provides a window to his personality or individual trait. He further argues that a

consistency of values and ideas in his writings could give insight into political

ideas and leadership style. On the other hand, it could be argued that the works

may not fully reveal the man himself as it is difficult if not impossible to truly

derive a person’s true intent from just his writings. Nevertheless, the author is

cautious and does highlight that “attempting to understand the idiosyncrasy of an

individual is daunting, if not impossible, task. It is judgmental and subject to

biases and leanings of the researcher” (Dhillon 2009: 15).

    5 
 
     
Dhillon deftly builds up a persona of Mahathir’s traits and political

outlook by looking into his family background, education and a myriad of

elements that were deemed formative to his character and delivers his judgment

that Mahathir viewed himself as always in the right and most qualified to lead the

country (Dhillon 2009: 52) and that his medical background gave rise to him

prescribing “cures” for any political or domestic ailments that would surface

(Dhillon 2009: 62)

The Domestic Factors that influenced and molded the MFP

highlighted in Chapter 3 are given as National Integration, Regime Maintenance

and National Development. All three factors share a common feature in the

sense that they all were tied to economic and commercial interests. The author

presents these factors in a flow of arguments backed up by supporting material

that lends credence to his points. Dhillon’s discussion on the Output of Malaysian

Foreign Policy proves to be one of the most riveting chapters in the book. Usage

and application of supporting material referred to and the analysis delivered is

convincing. As an example the author proposes that the “Buy British Last”

initiative is closely connected with the” Look East Policy” adapted immediately

after the fallout with Britain, the reason for this, asserts Dhillon, was to address

domestic pressure to further facilitate the implementation of affirmative action for

the majority Malays to have a larger piece of the economic pie. Since most

British commercial interests in Malaysia were affiliated with the Chinese,

Mahathir sought out new partnerships for the Malays through Japanese
    6 
 
     
investments and business opportunities. Thus, the Look East initiative created a

new partner in Japan and would surpass Britain as a larger trading partner and at

the same time appease domestic pressures and justify anti-Western sentiments.

This spurred MFP towards Japan and Korea and in turn assisted national

development.

The author’s conclusion in summing up his work flows well and is of

the opinion that Malaysia’s Foreign Policy under the Mahathir administration

underwent a shift from traditional to a more modern sense as compared to his

predecessors.

4.0 Conclusion

Dhillon’s Malaysian Foreign Policy in the Mahathir Era delivers a

convincing case in demonstrating that the Malaysian Foreign Policy under the

Mahathir administration is a product of the interaction of three main factors and

not attributed to a single factor theory.

The author in the course of research for the book has consulted

and cited from numerous sources namely Mahathir’s speech texts, written works,

articles and biographies. Additionally, references were made to official

documents, books, papers and articles. It would interesting to note that should
    7 
 
     
the author have had the privilege to interview Mahathir himself and the inner

circle of his administration, the content of the research would shed more

interesting angles on certain foreign policy issues.

As noted earlier, Dhillon applies the traditional comparative method

of deconstructing and making sense of foreign policies by observing and

discerning from the actions, rhetoric and outcome of actors involved. It can be

argued that Dhillon applies some form of interpretive analysis in making

connections to Mahathir’s idiosyncrasies and his political outlook and the actions

he takes in relation to how he views and understands the world (Marsh & Stoker

2010: 23) . Additionally, the ontological position or leanings of the research aim

to identify, categorise or compartmentalize and prioritise the sources of foreign

policies.

Overall, the book provides a balanced view of the constructs that

shape and influence Malaysian Foreign Policy, it is difficult not to fall into the trap

of attributing Mahathir to most, if not all, the ideas or nuances reflected in

Malaysia’s foreign policy during his premiership given the amount of evidence

shown. Nonetheless, Dhillon arrived at a model that incorporates other factors

and demonstrated their interaction.

This book is a welcome addition to the existing literature on Malaysian Foreign

Policy, particularly during the Mahathir administration.

References

Dhillon, Karminder Singh

(2009) Malaysian foreign policy in the mahathir era 1981 – 2003

dilemmas of development

Singapore: National University of Singapore Press

Evans, Graham & Newnham, Jeffrey

(1998) The penguin dictionary of international relations

London: Penguin Books

Jeshurun, Chandran

(2008) Malaysia fifty years of diplomacy 1957 - 2007

Singapore: Talisman Publishing

Marsh, David and Stoker, Gerry

([1995] 2010) Theory and methods in political science

(3rd ed.) England: Palgrave Macmillan

Saravanamuttu, Johan

(2010) Malaysia’s foreign policy, the first fifty years: alignment,

neutralism, islamism

Malaysia: Strategic Information and Research Centre