TASEK PAUH blogspot

You are still bitter about Mahathir?

I am no angel. Al Gore once asked me whether I could ever forgive Mahathir. I said, if he did me wrong, I forgive him. But if he stole from the people, he must give it back. That’s another problem. I am not a people’s representative who could make such a decision. But Mahathir himself always feels he is in the right. He feels the country’s economic foundation is sound. He said he never gave his kids and his family anything, that they never involved themselves in politics, that the press under his government was sufficiently free, the police never oppressed the people, and so forth. I think Mahathir has a major psychological problem. (At the time Anwar Ibrahim was tried in court in 2000, Al Gore, who was then the US Vice President, said that the government had abused the standards of international justice. Mahathir retorted strongly by saying that Al Gore’s statement was proof of ‘international interference.’—Ed.)

Will you return to UMNO?

My friends invited me back to UMNO, but I am not pleased with the party. It is too corrupt.

What is actually going on in UMNO?

UMNO has reached the point of corruption, the party has become very feudal. There has never been any discourse on how to stamp out corruption. But there are a lot of people who like Mahathir’s loud statements [frequently attacking Prime Minister Badawi], because not everyone dares to speak his mind.

Now it seems that Badawi is restricting Mahathir’s moves. What is your view on this?

I don’t agree with the way Abdullah Badawi is attacking and blocking Mahathir. As a citizen he has rights. But when Mahathir declared that Malaysia has become a police state, that there is no free press, and he was treated very badly, he was unable to respond and defend himself. This is ironic and laughable. Didn’t Mahathir do the same thing in the past? More from the interview session by Tempo during Anwar’s last visit to Indonesia.

Labels: anwar, Berita, Mahathir, Malaysia