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

• Author: Saravanamuttu, Johan
• Position: Book review

Malaysian Foreign Policy in the Mahathir Era 1981-2003: Dilemmas of Development. By Karminder Singh Dhillon. Singapore: NUS Press, 2009. Softcover: 300pp.

This first full-length work on Malaysian foreign policy during Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's tenure is a welcome addition to the literature. Although there have been several shorter studies or articles addressing Mahathir's foreign policy by academics such as David Camroux, Joseph Liow and myself, the subject certainly deserves the sustained and in-depth analysis given by Dhillon which shows Mahathir's indisputable impact on the country's foreign relations in the twenty-two years he was at the helm.

Self-consciously theoretical, the book, which is derived from a doctoral thesis submitted to Boston University, takes a stab at the foreign policy literature and highlights "the idiosyncratic factor" as the main element underpinning Mahathir's foreign policy. Foreign policy is examined across seven major outputs and sixteen component policy initiatives, the seven outputs being: Buy British Last, Anti-Commonwealth, Look East, Third World Spokesmanship, Regional Engagement, Islamic Posturing and Commercial and Developmental Diplomacy. Adopting social science parlance, the author identifies the seven outputs and sixteen components as the dependent variables of the study. Chapters Two, Three and Four are then structured according to the three major independent variables, the idiosyncratic factor, the domestic factors and the external factors, while Chapters Five and Six discuss the foreign policy outputs mentioned above. Chapter Seven, which concludes the book, summarizes the author's overall theoretical findings.

It is refreshing that while being theoretical, Dhillon employs a minimum of jargon, writing in a fluent and engaging style, brimming with rich narratives supported by copious footnotes. It is obvious that the author has read practically all the literature on Mahathir along with scores of his speeches, the most important ones being cited in the bibliography.

Emphasizing the idiosyncratic factor, Dhillon tries to show how the premier's personality impacted on foreign policy under his watch. Mahathir's "plebian" background (being raised in the poor state of Kedah), his mixed ethnic roots (paternal grandfather hailing from Kerala), distinct ideological disposition and feisty leadership style are all presumed to have influenced his policies. Beyond this, by employing a comparative foreign...