The challenge/ Mahathir Mohamad

Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's Prime Minister since 1981, is well known for his original ideas and incisive plain-speaking. Both traits are grippingly evident in this book, where he takes a hard and honest look at certain modes of thinking and living that ver vying for spremacy in the modern world, in general, and within the Malay community in Malaysia, in particular. With charateristic aplomb bd straight forwardness, Dr Mahathir explodes fallacies and exposes distortions concerning religiosity, education, role models, democracy, communism, freedom and dicipline, and the concerns of this world and the next. Only by striking an equilibrium between an interest in things spiritual and secular, can the Malays hope ro face and overcome the conflicting forces and challenges of the modern world. 'The Challenge' is thought provoking and is of special interest today as Dr Mahathir is at the helm of a nation striving for racial balance and religious sanity. He expounds the need for a new system of values, ethics and attitudes which the Malays must adopt in the country's quest to become a developed nation by the year 2020. By championing his Vision 2020 and the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), Malaysia, under his stewardship, will reach even greater heights.