Mahathir Mohamad
Mahathir Mohamad
people servant
Malaysians, during the colonial period, were not given the top positions: we were always subordinate. Fortunately for us, the people who took over were mainly civil servants: people who were serving the Government.
country world influential
The Commonwealth is a mixture of developing and developed world, in which the developed countries were very influential and their policies hold sway most of the time.
united-nations
I thought that the United Nations is a creature of the five super-powers who were given veto powers. I don't like veto powers at all.
unnecessary currency should
Currency trading is unnecessary, unproductive and totally immoral. It should be stopped.
done action policy
When I became Prime Minister, I looked back on what was done before - what were the policies and actions before - and I thought that I need to be critical if I'm going to do anything at all.
party thinking election
When you have elections in which 90% or 95% or 99% of those elected come from one party, then I think there is some fraudulent act.
country should-have world
Developing countries like Malaysia should have a say in changing the world financial system since we have faced the problems that it has caused.
mean leader accepting
Actually, I invited many Commonwealth leaders to come to Malaysia. They did not accept my invitation. By that, I mean, they didn't say they didn't accept, but they just didn't come here.
long
Membership of an organisation is good, as long as you can make yourself heard.
attitude done apartheid
Even in South Africa, the Commonwealth were not doing anything, and their attitude was to tolerate apartheid in South Africa. There was a lot of lip service being paid to the need to stop this practice, but nothing was done.
country reality people
Some people say that we here have no freedom of religion, ... In reality, the people in that country are the ones who were forced to embrace a religion.
country situation relevant
I know the situation of the Commonwealth generally, and I know that the aim should be to make the Commonwealth much more relevant to the poorer countries.
children lying president
History should remember Blair and Bush as the killers of children or as the lying prime minister and president.
christian religious real
Once started, religious strife has a tendency to go on and on - to become permanent feuds. Today we see such intractable inter-religious wars in Northern Ireland, between Jews and Muslims and Christians in Palestine, Hindus and Muslims in South Asia and in many other places. Attempts to bring about peace have failed again and again. Always the extremist elements invoking past injustices, imagined or real, will succeed in torpedoing the peace efforts and bringing about another bout of hostility.