Mahathir bin Mohamad, the longest-serving Prime Minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003, focused on economic growth and modernization during his tenure. His “Look East Policy” put an emphasis on the lessons from the East Asia development models, especially from Korea and Japan, and led Malaysia to become one of the newly industrialized countries. During the Asian financial crisis in 1997, Mahathir refused to receive support from the IMF and pursued his own measures to tackle the crisis.