Over 22 years ago, our then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the only non-African head of government among those gathered at the airport in Lusaka, Zambia, to welcome Nelson Mandela who was released days earlier after 27 years in prison by the white minority government in South Africa.

The world’s most famous prisoner who led his country’s long struggle against apartheid, the system of racial segregation and oppression, was free at last and Mahathir had travelled all the way there for the historic airport ceremony in February 1990.

I was with a small group of Malaysian reporters and some questions played in our minds that perhaps Mahathir looked the odd man out as it’s rare in terms of protocol for a prime minister to be present at such a ceremony.

Many would have thought that at best, Mandela’s release was a symbolic gesture by the white government in response to international pressure. Perhaps not Mahathir, who being the far-sighted leader that he is, seized the chance to cultivate his personal relationship with Mandela at the earliest possible moment. At a meeting with Mandela at a Zambian government guest house later, there was affable warmth between the two men and Mandela was touched when Mahathir presented him with a silver keris, the symbol of Malaysia’s constitutional monarchy system of government.

South Africa’s political landscape unfolded spectacularly following Mandela’s release and its president F.W. de Klerk did not only what his predecessors refused to do but the unthinkable as well as far as the white minority government was concerned. Single-handedly, he brought apartheid, undoubtedly the worst and most shameful system ever devised by a colonial power, to an end.

Malaysia had been a long-time opponent of apartheid with our first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman being one of the world’s most vocal critics. At the London Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 1961, he spoke strongly against apartheid.

Mahathir adopted a more hard-line approach, reminding world leaders at international forums that apartheid was a system that was not only inhumane but also brought injustice. He was unwavering in his belief that with the application of international pressure, it could be abolished “within the shortest period of time”. Against all odds, he was proven right.

South Africa’s first free and all-inclusive election was held in April 1994 which Mandela’s African National Congress (ANC) won overwhelmingly. And a month later, Mandela was elected the first president of South Africa’s Government of National Unity. Amazingly, this government saw de Klerk being elected deputy president, playing second fiddle to the man he had freed from almost three decades of incarceration four years earlier in what must be the only transfer of power of its kind in history.

A year earlier, both Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In a way, if there were such a thing as getting this prize more than once, both men more than deserve it when one considers that US president Barack Obama won it so early upon taking office although he has done almost nothing for peace.

The figure 94 seems significant in Mandela’s life. It was the year he became president but despite his popularity, he chose to serve for only one term till 1999. And amazingly, despite old age and diagnosed with prostate cancer, he turned 94 on July 18.

Apart from Mahathir, the one Malaysian whom Mandela has a soft spot for is Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing, the founder and president of Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, but better known within the country’s public relations industry as its most prominent PR guru.

On Mahathir’s recommendation to Mandela, he devised the PR strategy for the ANC during the 1994 South African election. Besides this, he was involved in the massive voter education exercise where out of 20 million eligible voters, 18 million would be voting for the first time! Of this figure, nine million were illiterate.

In an article he wrote for a 2008 book Going Forward dedicated to Mandela and Mahathir, Lim said he was tasked by Mandela to give the ANC’s election slogan, A better life for all, a powerful visual message.

“I felt very strongly that the message had to be one of reconciliation. I felt that Mandela needed to win the votes of everyone, including the whites. Since I arrived in South Africa I had spoken to so many people and I could gauge for myself the undercurrent that was prevalent at that time. So I pushed very hard for a visual platform to evoke an accommodating response from the electorate. Many within the ANC were not convinced. But I was very sure of the stance I proposed.”

Lim came up with the election poster of Mandela surrounded by smiling children of various races, including whites – a picture that is today familiar to the world as it shows a confident new South Africa.

The poster communicated very well with ANC’s aspirations for the people and to rebuild the nation. Many in the ANC opposed the visual, but in the end, Mandela had to step in to make the final decision. He trusted Lim’s judgment because of his awesome PR background and that he was handpicked by Mahathir.

The poster of Mandela with the children proved to be very popular. “Every time we put them up people would take them away to hang on their walls. They wanted this picture of their hero in their homes,” said Lim who criss-crossed South Africa with Mandela and other leaders during the election campaign putting up billboards, posters, bunting, and organising the public rallies.

“I found ANC leaders, besides Mandela, to be among the most charismatic people I have ever met. Watching them address public rallies I could feel the fire of South African leadership. They were such fiery orators,” said Lim, adding that the moments he spent with Mandela were cherished memories that he holds close to his heart.

Mahathir’s friendship with Mandela starting with his Lusaka airport presence in 1990 has spilled over to the economic spheres with the soft spot Mandela and subsequent presidents have for us resulting in Malaysians being one of the largest foreign investors in South Africa’s renaissance. It fits well into Mahathir’s “prosper thy neighbour” policy and the Southern Africa Dialogue that he initiated.

Limkokwing University has also become one of the most recognisable institutions of higher learning in Africa.And in 2007, I felt honoured when Lim invited me to Johannesburg to attend a ceremony for him to present his university’s honorary Doctorate of Humanity on Mandela, whom he aptly describes as the world’s greatest living statesman.

We were all looking very much forward to meeting Mandela and of course having a picture taken with him but unfortunately, at the last minute, we were told he couldn’t make it to the ceremony as he was taken ill.

During the trip, the election billboard created by Lim of Mandela with the smiling children could still be seen at strategic places.