Values and Visions of Mahathir Mohamad After the Asian financial crisis in 1997 that brought an end to the economic miracle in Southeast Asia, Malaysia has become an exceptional case, since its government could mitigate the turmoil’s adverse effects, such as rising unemployment or the breakdown of the political regimes. With the leadership of Mahathir Mohamad, the Malaysian government rejected to follow the advices of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) that included austerity and liberalization of capital mobility. Instead of implementing market reform, Mahathir employed state-owned financial institutions and enterprises, for example, Petronas, to bail out troubled businesses, imposed capital controls, and pegged Ringgit with US dollars (Khoo, 2006). As a result of these ‘heterodox’ methods, the government succeeded to prevent the acquisitions of Malaysian companies by foreign investors, which could alter patterns of ownership and control, and political instability that could be caused by massive unemployment and credit crunch. These unorthodox methods were by no means spontaneity of the leaders, but rooted in the values and visions of Mahathir Mohamad, who embodied the nationalist ideology and the ambition of capitalist development. To put it simply, Mahathir’s values and visions could be divided into two levels: national and global. Along with the objectives of making Malaysia as an industrialized independent nation in the international arena, Mahathir aimed to