Doctors in Politics Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mahathir bin Mahamid

Dr Mahathir bin Mahamid or 'Dr M' as he was known by the media and friends, was Prime Minister of Malaysia from 1988-2003 when he was succeeded by Abdullah Badawi. After graduating with a medical degree he worked as a government medical officer before setting up his own very successful practice.

He was originally elected as an MP in 1964 and came to prominence when he controversially criticised Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia's founding Prime Minister, after the 1969 race riots. He was sacked from his party and wrote a book 'The Malay Dilemma' which sought to explain the race riots.

His advocacy of affirmative action for ethnic Malays won widespread acceptance, a practice which became government policy when he assumed power in 1981. Dr M was seen as authoritarian and used state power to suppress opponents as was seen in the case of Anwar Ibrahim, his one time heir apparent, who was jailed on trumped up sodomy charges when he tried to expose corruption and nepotism.

He had an acerbic relationship with the west and Australia in particular once labelling them as the 'white trash of Asia' in response to attempts to identify themselves more closely with the region.

The relationship was not helped when Prime Minister Keating labelled Dr M, 'recalcitrant', over his failure to appear at an APEC summit.

Answer: Portugal

Dr Antonio Salazar ruled Portugal from 1932-68. Originally a professor of economics he started his political career when he became Minister of Finance after a military coup deposed the previous government. He managed a successful budget which put the country's finances in surplus.

As Prime Minister he closely supervised the work of his ministers and successfully steered Portugal on a neutral path during the Spanish Civil War and WWII. After the war he tried to incorporate Portugal's extensive colonial holdings into the central government.

This was difficult at a time of widespread de-colonisation and his decision to defend the colonies against the trend led to a series of long running guerrilla wars.

Answer: Hendrik Verwoerd

Dr Hendrik Verwoerd was Prime Minister from 1958-66. He earned his Doctorate in Psychology in 1924 and worked in Germany when National Socialism was on the rise but his writings from that time show no relationship with that creed. He implemented the apartheid policy during his time as Minister of Native Affairs under the leadership of Daniel Malan who had led the National Party to victory in 1948. During his term as Prime Minister, the ANC was banned, the trial and conviction of their leaders including Nelson Mandela took place and the Sharpeville massacre occurred.

He extended the policy of apartheid by assigning citizenship to native groups from different 'Homelands' thus depriving them of their South African identity. He proclaimed South Africa a republic in 1961 and withdrew the country from the British Commonwealth.

His assassin escaped the death penalty on the grounds of insanity but it is believed the real reason for his act was that he was a victim of the laws which banned sexual relations between racial groups.

Answer: Shuttle

Dr Henry Kissinger served as Nixon's advisor before becoming Secretary of State from 1973-77. He was German born, but his family was forced to flee the country following Nazi persecution. After receiving his doctorate from Harvard, where he specialised in studies on international relations, he became a director of various strategic think tanks.

He was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 (along with Lee Duc Tho the North Vietnamese negotiator who declined to accept his) for his efforts to negotiate the ceasefire which allowed the US to withdraw their forces from Vietnam.

He pioneered the policy of Détente which led to Nixon's groundbreaking meetings with Soviet and Chinese leaders and the SALT strategic arms reduction talks. He conducted diplomocy on all the major disputes of his time including; the 1973 Yom Kippur War where the term Shuttle Diplomacy came into vogue, the Vietnam and Cambodian conflicts, the 1971 Indo-Pak War, and the Chilean and Argentine coups.

He had no involvement in the Watergate scandal which engulfed the Nixon Presidency and is remembered as a skilled diplomat with a strong accent from his country of birth.

Answer: Syrian

Syrian strongman Hafez -al Assad recalled his son Bashir to groom him as heir apparent to the Presidency after his older brother Basil was killed in an auto accident. He had been practicing medicine in London where he had trained in ophthalmology. He assumed power on the death of his father and ruled with a softer touch but freedoms were still curtailed.

He was President at the time of the Lebanese crisis in 2005 when Syrian forces, which had been occupying parts of the country since the Civil War, were forced to withdraw in the wake of accusations of their involvement in the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

In 2006 he managed to keep Syria out of the Israeli-Lebanese conflict in July of that year.

Answer: Papa Doc

Dr Francois Duvalier, 'Papa Doc', presided over a repressive regime in the Caribbean island nation of Haiti from 1957-71. He trained as a Doctor, serving in rural areas before becoming Director General of the National Health Service. When he came to power it was with the help of armed gangs and assassins and he immediately revived the cult of voodoo declaring himself as high priest in order to consolidate power.

He took to wearing dark sunglasses to enhance his aura of authority. Clement Barbot, his personal aide, formed the Tonton Macoute or 'Bogeymen' to enforce his power after an attempted army coup.

A sham election in 1961 orchestrated by Borbot's Bogeymen, resulted in the farcical return of 1.3 million votes for and 0 against! Haiti gained the reputation of being the most repressive regime in the Western Hemisphere and became the pariah of the region.

At one stage he was excommunicated by the Vatican for harassing the clergy (he wished to nominate his own catholic hierarchy). Barbot assumed the Presidency when Duvalier had a heart attack but when he recovered Barbot was imprisoned for his trouble.

He was later murdered, probably on the orders of Papa Doc, after an attempted insurrection. After his death he was succeeded by his son Jean Claude, quickly dubbed 'Baby Doc' by the media who took over much of his father's terror apparatus. A rampaging mob later attempted to exhume 'Papa Doc's' body in order to ritually beat it to 'death' so he could never rise on Judgement Day!

Answer: Sun Yat-Sen

Dr Sun Yat-Sen studied in Hawaii and earned his medical degree in Hong Kong where he practiced for a short time. He was soon drawn to revolutionary activity in his homeland where the tottering Qing dynasty was in its dying days following the rapacious demands of aggressive western powers.

He had westernised ideas and was catapulted to be China's first President following the 1911 revolution which finally toppled the Qing dynasty. He opposed the warlords who were vying for power at this time and was a co-founder of the Kuomintang serving as its first leader. Chiang Kai-Shek assumed the leadership of the Kuomintang after the death of Sun Yat-Sen, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai led the communist party to victory on the mainland.

Answer: Chile

After briefly practicing his profession Dr Allende showed an early interest in politics and served as Minister of Health in a Popular Front government. He made three unsuccessful bids for the Presidency prompting him to joke that his epitaph would be 'Here lies the next President of Chile' before he was successful in the 1970 election.

He was a socialist at heart and immediately implemented a programme of social reform, inviting Castro with whom he shared his socialist ideology, to visit the country.

This put him at odds with the US and the Castro visit confirmed their view that Chile was going communist. The CIA orchestrated the military coup led by General Pinochet which toppled the Allende government in September 1973. It is unclear whether Allende was killed by gunfire or committed suicide.

Answer: Gold Coast

Dr Nkrumah, who had an MSc and a PhD in Political Science, spent many years lecturing in the US and was later awarded Honorary Doctorates from several distinguished universities. After the war, he became involved in the process of de-colonisation of Africa returning to his homeland in the Gold Coast to lead the struggle.

He was jailed by the British at one stage before they released him when he was elected Prime Minister of a transitional government. As the first leader to gain independence for his country he was a supporter of Pan-Africanism and was instrumental in setting up the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

His economic policies at home had mixed success with Ghana going from being one of the richest countries in Africa at independence to being one of the poorest by the time he was deposed. Dr Nkrumah is still regarded as one of the most respected leaders in modern Africa.

Answer: Mohammed Mussadeq

Dr Mohammed Mussadeq became Prime Minister of Iran in 1951 after the assassination of his predecessor and was deposed by a CIA inspired coup in 1953. He studied in Paris where he received a PhD in law. Dr Mussadeq championed Iranian opposition to foreign interference in national affairs which was a source of resentment especially after the occupation of the country by allied forces in WWII and control of the oil industry by Britain through the Anglo Iranian Oil Company (AIOC).

When he nationalised the oil industry on assuming power, Britain was especially resentful over its loss of monopoly but could not persuade the US to back them as they regarded Dr Mussadeq's government as a bulwark against communism.

The US eventually came around to the British point of view after intense lobbying and Dr Mussadeq's increasingly erratic behaviour.

The oil industry had virtually collapsed after the takeover from AIOC as none of the staff agreed to work with the government. After he was removed from power a tearful Dr Mussadeq was put on trial where his histrionics failed to impress the court and he was only saved from the death sentence by the intervention of the Shah, serving a sentence of three years.

He still remains a popular figure in Iranian history but is generally ignored by the Islamic government because of his secularism and western manners. King Faisal was king of Saudi Arabia from 1964-75, Adnan Khassogi is a famous Saudi multibillionaire and Ayatollah Khomeini became leader of a theocratic state in Iran after the Shah was toppled in the 1979 revolution.