Mahathir Mohamad, the former Malaysian prime minister and ex-leader of the ruling United Malays National Organisation, has never been shy to analyse his country’s problems or to claim a starring role in its political theatre.

In 1970, in his manifesto, The Malay Dilemma, he emerged from the political wilderness to pinpoint government complacency as a cause of the lethal race riots between Malays and Chinese the previous year. “The government, glorying in its massive strength, became contemptuous of criticisms,” he wrote. “The gulf between the government and the people widened so that the government was no longer able to feel the pulse of the people.”