In Liberal Doses

by Marina Mahathir

Book by Mahathir, Marina

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

200 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1998

About the author

Marina is well known as a leader in many non-governmental organizations such as the Malaysian AIDS Foundation and is currently an active socio-political blogger. She also writes in her bi-weekly column called Musings in The Star newspaper since 1989. Some of her pieces in the column have been published in her books such as 50 Days: Rantings by MM, published in 1997 and Telling It Straight, published in 2012 by Editions Didier Millet. The latter is a selection of her articles published in her column between 2003 and 2012. It includes a foreword by Dr. Farish A. Noor, a local political scientist and historian. It contains 90 articles which are written thematically including a special written introduction on the topics discussed in the book. It also includes two previously unpublished articles.

She is an active campaigner for women's rights. In 2006 she has described the status of Muslim women in Malaysia as similar to that of the Black South Africans under apartheid.

Marina has called for an end to discrimination based on sexual orientations in 1998 and 1999.

She had appeared in Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad's Documentary released in late 2009 with the rest of the members of the Mahathir Family.

In 2010, she was awarded UN Person of The Year for her volunteer work in combatting HIV/AIDS

Reviews

[Stef Rozitis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a complex relationship with this. Initially it was like eavesdropping on a conversation I am not really part of. I have never been to Malaysia and the book takes for granted that you know the context there. To be fair the column would be written for a local, not an international audience.

Then there was a whole lot of individualism and neoliberal buy in coupled with traditional family values and I almost threw the book against the wall. I kept reading in small doses. While not agreeing with some of those articles I noticed that feminism and AIDS advocacy started creeping in (sometimes only as a sentence) in most articles. I noticed some carefully worded criticisms. I also reflected on things I wrote back in 1998 and how much I would cringe to read them now.

She says some stuff that needs to be said. Some stuff is outdated. Some I might disagree with but I felt I gained a glimpse of Malaysian society, albeit through a narrow window.

[z · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it for the fourth time!

[HeavyReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book when I was in Malaysia several years ago.

It's a collection of essays by the feminist daughter of one of the country's conservative leaders. Very interesting.

[Puguh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Girls... you'd better read this!!

[Nuurzaman]

about social issues

[Sue Abideen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was going to reach out for another read from my own library when I saw this. Love this collection of her articles to bits.

[Iqbal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best from her but it's still worth to read.