The Legacy Of C.H.E. DET: Portrait Of A Nationalist As A Young Man

Abstract

While he was a medical student in Singapore, Mahathir Mohamad wrote a series of articles for The SUnday Times under the pseudonym of "C.H.E. Det". Other than terse references to their existence in Mahathir's biographics, these articles have been overlooked by students of Mahathir's ideas and politics. Some may have bypassed the articles because of an exclusive association of Mahathir's ideas with The Malay Dilemma, still the best-know of his writings. Others may simply have reacted to C.H.E. Det's youth with a detached prejudice! This essau explores "the world of C.H.E. Det" in order to apprehend the worldview of the adult Mahathir. It suggests that many of C.H.E. Det's "youthful" concerns resonated as the "Malay dilemma" and other "dilemmas" which Mahathir, as Malay nationalist and as Prime Ministre, has articulated with considerable force.