Review: In Liberal Doses by Marina Mahathir

Title: In Liberal Doses
Author: Marina Mahathir
Year: 1997
ISBN: 983-99507-7-0

In Liberal Doses by Marina Mahathir is a collection of articles written by Marina for the column 'Musings' in The Star, a local English daily in Malaysia from 1991 to 1997. This book discusses a wide range of issues related to Malaysian life - On Being Malaysian, Marina vs the Censors, Malaysia's Social Values, Malaysian Looks at the World, Talking to Young People, Women in Malaysia and AIDS.

Marina being the daughter to the then Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad embodies the liberal voice of a true Malaysian on many issues affecting the Malaysian society. The articles featured in this book illustrated hopes and ideals Marina has envisioned for this beloved country for it to achieve the Vision 2020 goals, when Malaysia will become a developed country.

Reading this book was an extremely eye-opening experience for me. The issues that were highlighted by Marina all those years ago has become still the same issues that ordinary Malaysians need to grapple with today. Those issues were relevant when they were highlighted then, and they ARE STILL very relevant to be addressed in this day of age even when dissemination of information can be done in a blink of an eye.

Although the Malaysian society has come very far to where it is today, however, the issues highlighted in this book are far from being resolved. Many of these issues have remained extremely tricky to be completely resolved as there are many factors to be considered, due to the fact Malaysia is multi-racial country. Marina offered a fresh perspective and insight when discussing the above-mentioned issues, and this would encourage the reader, especially when he or she is a Malaysian to ponder how those issues have affected them in any way at all.

I would give this book a double thumbs-up for its excellent manner of compilation when discussing the highlighted issues. As Marina is a prolific writer and highly accomplished book publisher, these articles were written in an interesting and straightforward manner, minus the confusing jargons that are often used when discussing those issues. She is still writing articles for the 'Musings' column in the The Star newspaper and I am still reading it on a regular basis.

If Marina intends to release another similar kind of book, I would want to be the first in the line to acquire it. She is one of the very few Malaysians who writes extremely well and very eloquently too.