The Customs Department have been holding up delivery of 800 copies of an authoritative new biography of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad for the past three weeks in Port Klang.

The book, ‘ Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times ’, written by former Asian Wall Street Journal managing editor Barry Wain, is a warts-and-all, critical but fair account of Mahathir's 22 years in power.

It is certain to become an essential study for scholars seeking to understand the onetime premier's reign and its consequences. But maybe not in Malaysia itself unless the locals...