Stanford Humanities Center
The Political Fairy Tale(s) of Mahathir Mohamad
In 2018 in Malaysia, a new story emerges: Anwar, founder of the democratic movement and Mahathir, who ruled for 22 years and sentenced Anwar to jail, are united again for the “good” of the country. In a decade, Malaysia has turned into “kleptocracy” in the hands of the “evil” Prime Minister Najib embedded in the 1MDB financial scandal. With the blessings of Anwar, in jail again since 2015 on new sodomy charges, Mahathir takes the leadership of the democratic movement. And the story takes: in May, against all odds, the 92 years old Mahathir is reelected under the condition he will pass on power to Anwar within two years. As promised, a week after Mahathir’s victory, Anwar is released.
The (hi-) story of a “New Malaysia” starts inspired by the messianic return of Mahathir on a mission to slay the head of the political hydra he had once engendered. But in 2020, the mirage of political transition is fading further away, Mahathir holds on to his mission, and to power, while Anwar desperately (re-) claims a new role as hero of the Malays. Meanwhile, the former Prime Minister Najib facing a historical trial denounces the “judiciary harassment he is victim of” while building his own new (fairy) tale.
Martyrs, Messiahs, Fallen heroes, Witches and Villains: Mahathir returned to power telling a story appealing to Malaysians political imaginary. Politics and drama are the pillars of all power games. Without its subjective dimension and its clear romanesque and dramatic Shakespearean tone, the complexity of Malaysian politics, and politics in general, cannot be understood. It is the making of this (hi-) story that I followed for 6 months in the inner circles of the Prime Minister and that I keep documenting until now collecting information from its main protagonists. This seminar is open to all of you who have some interest in understanding and discussing how political furies and faeries rock and rule for better and for worse.
Sophie Lemiere is a Political Anthropologist and a Malaysia specialist. She is a non-residential fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS-Harvard University) and Associate Fellow at the History Workshop at Wits University, Johannesburg, RSA. Sophie is currently the Christopher Family FSI-Humanities Center International Visitor, 2019-20, at Stanford, and in the Spring will be a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the International Forum for Democratic Studies (NED), in Washington D.C.
Lemiere's current work explore on the intangible elements of politics including: the conjunction of political imaginary and legitimacy, charisma and personality politics, the evolution of political imaginary, the constructions of political and national narratives, the role of emotions in politics, etc.
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