Malaysia’s Ex-PM Mahathir Hospitalized

By VIJAY JOSHI

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, the architect of the country’s modernization, was hospitalized Thursday after suffering a mild heart attack, hospital officials and a relative said.

Mahathir, 81, was admitted to the government’s National Heart Institute and was resting and receiving visits only from family members, the hospital said.

The sudden hospitalization could put the brakes, at least temporarily, on a strident anti-government campaign Mahathir has been conducting against his hand-picked successor, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, whom he has accused of corruption, nepotism and mismanaging the economy.

Mahathir’s son Mirzan told The Associated Press that his father suffered mild pain on the left side of the chest early Thursday after he returned from a trip to New Zealand.

"He is stable now," Mirzan said, adding that his father will be kept under observation in a coronary care unit for a week.

Mahathir, a medical doctor by training, had coronary artery bypass surgery in 1989, and had been having regular medical checkups at the National Heart Institute. He was last admitted to the institute in December 2005, the institute said.

Mahathir, Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister, retired on Oct. 31, 2003, after 22 years in office, during which the country transformed from an agriculture and mining-dependent economy to an industrial powerhouse.

He presided over mega-projects such as the multibillion-dollar Kuala Lumpur International Airport, the new administrative capital of Putrajaya, an international technology park and the Petronas Twin Towers, once the tallest buildings in the world.

He has become largely isolated from the ruling United Malays National Organization party during the last one year because of his anti-government accusations, for which he has provided no real evidence.