Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is an important person in the country and he has recorded

several of history in his political life. The history that has been recorded by him has developed
our country and expanded the country’s economy. Therefore, he should be honored and deserves
a special place in the history of Malaysia. Besides, Malaysia well known by most of the countries
by the name that has been brought by him and has become a phenomenon such as in Africa,
Indonesia and countries in others continent.

After Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad succeeded in winning the Kubang Pasu Parliamentary
seat by winning unbeaten in the 1974 General Election, he had won a place in the cabinet of late
Tun Abdul Razak. He was appointed as the Minister of Education on 6th of October 1974. During
his tenure as Minister of Education, several changes were made. His first act as the Minister at
that time was to change the nation’s education policy by implementing efforts to eradicate and
eliminate poverty and created justice for all. His second move was to amend the University and
University College of Universities Act 1974 by placing the university administration directly under
the Ministry of Education. He had received many opposition and obstacles from academics and
those involved in education, but he continued with all the actions he had done and successfully
eliminated all the criticisms of the fundamentals of education.

Highlighting the nation’s historic date in 28 of February 1991 in revealing Tun Dr Mahathir
speech, the former fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia when he introduced the Vision of 2020 at
the conference, he has sparked a desire to upgrade the status of Malaysia from a developing
country to a fully developed industrial nation by 2020. His speech has caused one of Tun Dr.
Mahathir’s philosophical thoughts on the progress and development of national education for his
22 years of service as a pillar of national leaders. One from his speeches said that from a past
two decades of amazing experience amongst all countries that have previously been limited in
natural resources, indicates that the most important source of a nation is the talent, skill, creativity
and the power of his people. He also said that human brain is much more valuable than natural
resources.

The sequence of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s idea to realize Malaysia as a developed

nation by 2020, the Malaysian government has developed a framework for implementing a plan
through comprehensive human resource development by educational processes to all levels of
the Malaysian community, especially the Bumiputra and the Malay community. We cannot deny
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s role and contribution in education. Even he has made a stimulus to
Malaysians, especially the Malays in their beloved speeches in conjunction with the 40th
Anniversary of the Independence Day in 1991, to always strive to complete the whole of all angles,
and the need for high technology-based knowledge to nurture a national spirit of excellence in
their respective countries. He said if the people are not ready to face the world’s change, the
country cannot afford to compete with other developed countries. He wants the nation’s
development to be in tandem with spiritual development in order to balance between them can
fulfill the government’s desire to produce a community of people.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has made many changes in the administration. Since his
inauguration as Prime Minister, he has standardized the system and way of working with the
system of time recording card, name tagging, file storage system, correspondence and postal
services, guidance and coordination in all office matters. Additionally, he has also introduced the
slogan in the public administration of the country, among others is Leadership East Policy and
Application of Islamic Values in administration. Through this effort, many changes can be
implemented such as good work ethics, the application of positive values, diligence, effective and
efficient and others.

He also launched the Anti-Corruption Combat with the slogan ‘ Clean, Efficient and
Trusted’ to all government officials and staff. During his administration, the world economic crisis
was hit most countries around the world especially the Asian countries such as Thailand, the
Philippines and Indonesia. He has solved this problem by tapping Malaysia’s ringgit currency into
the US Dollar. World Financial Institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) have criticized her actions but it proved to be successful when Malaysia was the only
country that was spared the turmoil and the conditions set by them. This brave and wise act has
received praise from Horst Kohler, General Manager of the IMF.

During his tenure as Prime Minister of Malaysia, many developments have been made
that he was called as ‘The father of Modernization Malaysia ’, the ultimate statesman who brought
Malaysia to the top of the world to honor the foreign countries. Malaysia is also a new investment
center in Southeast Asia and being an alternative to foreign investors after Singapore. Among the
successes of a mega material project that is linked to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is Kuala Lumpur
City Centre (KLCC), Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC),
Petronas Twin Tower, KL Tower, Penang Bridge, National Automobile Company (Proton),
Second State Automobile Company (Perodua), Sepang Formula One Circuit, Putrajaya
development and transfer the center of administration from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya.

After his 4th Malaysian Prime Minister on 31st of October 2003, Tun Dr Mahathir
Mohamad’s name was at the height of glory at international level. He received the Tun Award as
the most honored award in Malaysia for his outstanding service as Prime Minister of Malaysia for
22 years, the longest-serving leadership era in Southeast Asia. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has a
very high aspiration to unite every nation’s goal towards the formation of a developing nation. He
has far-sightedness for prosperity and redeeming the dignity of the nation especially promoting
the nation and putting it on the international front. All the plans are in the long term form indicating
a starting point and national unity as a whole. Tun Dr Mahathir has succeeded in realizing the
dreams and expectations of the people in line with the needs of Vision 2020 towards the progress
of the country. The Vision 2020 which has been introduced by him as the basis and guide to
achieving the nation’s advanced and systematic goals in terms of science and technology,
economy and infrastructure world. It is an idea that will lead the country in the direction of the
vertex by guiding the direction of future action.