Major-General Mahmud Sulaiman (c. 1928 – 26 August 2020) was a Malaysian general officer.
[2] His military career took off when Mahmud was personally selected by then British High Commissioner to Malaya Gerald Templer to study in Sandhurst in the 1950s.
Mahmud reportedly "saw immense propaganda value in former terrorists who were now alive, repentant, and leading full productive lives", he analogised the war to exterminating rats.
Poisoning and killing them would not work as long as they reproduced; instead by attacking the root causes such as the habitat, the rats could be extinguished.
His strategy was approved of by civilian superiors such as the later Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.