| Mahathir Bin Mohammed was appointed as Vice-Prime Minister in March,1976. During 1981 to 2003, he was elected as Prime Minister of Malaysia for five times successively. During his tenure, Malaysia, where ethnic issue was complicated and austere, obtained the relative political and social stability as well as economic development. With remarkable results, it quickly became an rising force of East Asia and the Third World which can not be ignored. These results were inseparable with his administrative policies and flexible strategies, therefore researching on the consciousness of overall situation and national thoughts with which he dealed with the ethnic relations, can offer valuable reference to China in establishing overseas policies and conducting Sino-Malaysian affairs and also offer a way to costructure the harmonious ethnic relations for our country.The essay is composed of four parts.Part I expresses the academic retrospect and realistic thinking of related research on Mahathir's Chinese ethnic policy. By summarizing the results of present research and exploring the deficient areas to find academic vacancy for this essay, this chapter expatiates on the significance of choosing the topic. Scholars at home and abroad have achieved several aspects of the research as the following:Mahathir's philosophy of life and politics, practical experience and thoughts of developing the country; research on the relations between Malaysia's economic taking-off and political development; investigation on Southeast Asian countrys'internal political power structure and political system model, the characters of political party system, and political development venation; research on Southeast Asian authoritarian regime and modern development; research on the developing model of East Asia; international relations of Southeast Asia and foreign policy; international community's impact on the development of Southeast Asian countries; international and regional organizations in Southeast Asia; overseas Chinese studies. As there are few scholars who have researched on how Mahathir dealed with Malaysia's national issues,it provides a researching vacancy for this paper.Part II expatiates on the concept concerning the topic. First of all, a brief review of Mahathir's life, summarizing his strategies and measures to Malaysia's political, economic and social devalopment. Secondly, the definition of " Chinese ethnic ", it refers to Chinese immigrants and their descendants who possessed Chinese cultural characteristics and consciousness of the nation while living in Malaysia. Chinese ethnic was formed approximately between 1945 to 1963 .Part III mainly discusses how the two previous Prime Ministers treated with racial issues. To the serious political, economic, social, cultural, and ethnic conflicts after Malaysia's independence , Tunku Abdul Rahman was unable to come up with a bold and effective means to solve the problem, which failed to avoid the tragic incident of May 13. After "5?13" incident, Tun Abdul Razak replaced Tunku as the Prime Minister, focusing on the priority of Malaysia and bringing forward the "New Economic Policy" in 1971, which had profound effects during its implementation period for 20 years. Even the Prime Minister Mahathir's subsequent "National Development Policy" still followed the "New Economic Policy" spirits, fully favoring the economic interests of Malaysian . Part IV deals with Mahathir Government's ethnic policy and Chinese ethnic community. By discussing three different stages of Mahathir's reigns, this part mainly probes into the relation between the Government and Chinese ethnic community and Mahathir Government's ethnic policy. During the first stage(1981-1990), Mahathir held over Prime Minister in 1981, the new economic policy was carried out for ten years, and it achieved good effects. On how to deal with "New Economic Policy", he made it clear that it would continue to realize the goal of implementation "the new economic policy". The core of the new economic policy sill remained "eradication of poverty" and "restructuring society". During the second stage(1990-1997), Malaysia's polity, economy and society continued to change. In this period from Mahathir assuming the reins of government in early 1981 to his Operasi Lalang, his new leadership within The New United Malays National Organization had been fully established, thus ensuring political stability and continuity of the policy. Twenty years after the implementation of the New Economic Policy took effect, it had achieved remarkable results, Malaysia's economy had grown leaps and bounds. Under the leadership of Mahathir, Malaysia's policy and position had more development and tolerance, which had been ratified by Chinese ethnic community. During the third stage(1997-2003), Mahathir's Chinese ethnic policy which was made on the base of the political interests and the overall situation of national development, which had won the support of Chinese ethnic community. Conclusion: Malaysia's economic development is inseparable to the correct leadership of Mahathir. He successfully implemented ethnic policies and handled ethnic relations, obtaining social and political stability, thus creating a good social environment for economic development. Chinese ethnic group was satisfied with his leadership on the whole. Mahathir was a controversial figure, during his time, the development of Chinese ethnic community was not smooth, especially in 1980s, Chinese ethnic community even felt disappointed about the future, but the ethnic intense incidents did not deteriorate into riots like the incident of May 13. It is difficult to govern a multi-ethnic country. There are many Chinese who are loyal to Mahathir, and they are likely to owe the achievement of peace to Mahathir.
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