Free A Doctor in The House: A Memoir of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad

master the knowledge, wisdom and understanding that can enable them to do so effectively. They must acquire important skills that will empower them. But these alone will not be enough. The Malays must revisit their past and learn from history’s tough lessons in order to secure their place in the world.
    ENDNOTES
    [ 1 ] The winds upon which those engaged in the growing international trade relied.  
    [ 2 ] Cambridge History of Southeast Asia: Volume One, Part Two, From c. 1500 to 1800 , edited by Nicholas Tarling, Cambridge University Press, 1992.  

Chapter 7: Awakenings
    I read about the Japanese surrender in the newspapers more than a week after it happened. As a symbol of Japanese surrender, General Tomoyuki Yamashita, the Tiger of Malaya, handed over a samurai sword to Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten on the steps of the Court House in Singapore on 12 September 1945. Humiliated by the surrender of their commander-in-chief Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival in Bukit Timah, Singapore, in 1942, the British were determined to make an elaborate, well-publicised show of the Japanese defeat.
    A large number of local Chinese gathered to watch the ceremony on a field facing the Court House. Their feelings were clear: the hated Japanese had lost and it served them right. That meant that not only Malaya, but China too would be liberated from the Japanese.
    The Malays, on the other hand, seemed unmoved by the surrender. I was told that they simply looked on at the solemn and momentous spectacle. I do not remember celebrating nor did my friends and other people in Alor Star appear jubilant. True,  Tanah Melayu,  our homeland, was now free from the Japanese, but for the Malays it was just another change of colonial masters. We were happy the war was over, but that was all. We were back to being under British rule.
    All I could think about was going back to school. I was 19 years old by then and missed the company of my friends and schoolmates, many of whom had returned to their  kampung  during the war. A few had died. My close friend Aziz Zain, who had lived near my house, had contracted a high fever when he was 16 and passed away. Medical treatment was not available during the Japanese Occupation.
    As soon as school re-opened, I was re-admitted to Standard Nine. I remember all of us crowding into the classroom on our first day back. Most of us were not wearing the school uniform of black shorts and white shirts. Later, when we had time to obtain our uniforms, my family could not afford to buy cotton shirts for me, so I wore a white T-shirt instead. I would continue to do this throughout my remaining time in school. Our class master was Mr Zain Rashid, whom I remember well. He was a remarkable man who spoke English meticulously. All of our old teachers returned as well, except the geography teacher Mr M. Veeramuthu, who had died during the war.
    Mr J.F. Augustine, the most senior teacher, was appointed our temporary headmaster. He was a Eurasian from the Philippines and he had a family big enough to fill all the positions in a football team. Mr Augustine also taught English, and he always gave me good marks for my work. It was he who made me Chairman of the Literary and Debating Society and Editor of the school magazine,  The Darulaman.  My first editorial for the magazine was a commentary about the war and the Japanese. I set out to write a grand piece, beginning with “Much water has passed under the bridge” to show how good my English was. But Mr Augustine thought it was bombastic, perhaps because I had insisted on using big words, so I had to revise it.
    He was headmaster for only a few months when he was succeeded by a young Englishman, Mr G.E. Marrison. Although Mr Marrison was only in his late twenties, he was considered more senior than all the other Malayan teachers. He was a linguist and picked up Tamil very quickly by talking to the hawkers in the canteen. He became a priest a few years later and I attended his