Former Malaysian PM suffers heart attack

Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, the architect of the country’s modernisation, has been taken to hospital after suffering a heart attack.

Mahathir, 81, was admitted to the government’s National Heart Institute “in the early hours of today”, hospital spokeswoman Alawiyah Yussof said.

“He suffered a mild myocardial infraction,” she said, a reference to a heart attack.

The sudden hospitalisation is expected to put the brakes, at least temporarily, on a strident anti-government campaign Mahathir has been leading for the last year against his hand-picked successor Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Mahathir has accused Abdullah of corruption, nepotism and mismanaging the economy.

Mahathir’s son Mirzan said his father suffered mild pain on the left side of the chest early today and was rushed to hospital.

“He is stable now,” Mirzan said, adding that his father was now resting in a coronary care unit, and will be kept there under observation for a week.

The heart attack occurred soon after he returned from a trip to New Zealand last night.

The International Herald Tribune newspaper reported earlier this week that Mahathir’s doctors have told him about three blockages in his heart.

It was the first public indication that the elder statesman was not well in recent years, even though he has appeared robust and attended public functions regularly.

Mahathir, a medical doctor by training, had a coronary artery bypass surgery in 1989, and had been having regular medical checkups at the National Heart Institute, known by its Malay acronym IJN.

He was last admitted to the institute in December 2005, an IJN statement said.

“Dr Mahathir is advised to rest and thus will only receive visits from immediate family members,” it said.

Mahathir, Malaysia’s longest serving prime minister, retired on October 31, 2003, after 22 years in office, a period credited with turning the country from an agricultural and mining-dependent economy to an industrial powerhouse.

During his time he presided over projects such as the multi-billion-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.

Although he retired in a blaze of glory, he has become largely isolated in the ruling United Malays National Organisation party during the last year because of his anti-government accusations, for which he has provided no real evidence.

Mahathir has also accused Abdullah of trying to “muzzle” him by thwarting public functions where he is invited to speak.