Mahathir Mohamad: what Wikipedia removed
Mahathir Mohamad served as Malaysia’s prime minister for more than two decades and was known for outspoken public statements. Through 2005 the opening said Mahathir made public statements which critics said were tinged with anti-semitism. Today the opening lists his ministerial roles with no mention of antisemitism, though the word survives once elsewhere in the article. A reader today learns his career timeline, and not that critics called his public statements antisemitic.
The word “indigenous” appeared 2 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2020. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 8. Checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01.
The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot
Section titled “The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot”| word | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 6 October 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| indigenous | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| antisemitism | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| apartheid | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| occupation | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Counts are of the opening paragraph only, the part most readers, search engines and AI training sets ever quote.
What was taken out
Section titled “What was taken out”- The sentence describing critics’ accusation that Mahathir’s public statements were tinged with antisemitism, dropped from the opening.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2005 (revision 16131502):
Y.A.Bhg Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad (born December 20 , 1925 ) was the Prime Minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003 . During his term in office he was credited for engineering Malaysia’s rapid modernisation and the resulting high levels of prosperity now enjoyed by nearly all Malaysians. By fostering a Malay middle class, independent of the traditionally-dominant Chinese minority, Mahathir was able to maintain peace between the various races in Malaysia, and this is regarded by many as his greatest achievement. However, he also came under great criticism for his authoritarian ruling style and for rampant cronyism in his government. Mahathir could also be very outspoken, and at times made pub…
2025 (revision 1298079624):
Prime Minister of Malaysia (1981–2003, 2018–2020) In this Malay name , there is no surname or family name . The name Mohamad is a patronymic , and the person should be referred to by their given name , Mahathir . The word “bin”/“ibn” or “binti”/“binte” means ‘son of’ or ‘daughter of’, respectively. Ministerial roles 1974–1978 Minister of Education 1976–1981 Deputy Prime Minister 1978–1981 Minister of Trade and Industry 1981–1986 Minister of Defence 1986–1999 Minister of Home Affairs 1998–1999 Minister of Finance 2001–2003 Minister of Finance 2020 Acting Minister of Education Other roles 2003 Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement Personal details Born Mahathir bin Mohamad ( 1925-07-10…
Related
Section titled “Related”- The drift report: what changed across all 61,944 watched articles
- The case file for this article, with every snapshot and every marked removal
- Who made the cuts: removals grouped by the account that made them
- The live article on Wikipedia
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