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FORMER prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, largely out of the spotlight in the elections so far, has finally returned to the arena with a wide-ranging exclusive interview with online newspaper Malaysiakini.
Among other things, he was more guarded in his comments on his successor, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, and was critical of Malaysian Indian Congress chief S. Samy Vellu. He also called for a better opposition. It would be a 'disaster', he said, if Malaysia 'loses its opposition' as in Singapore. 'I have always maintained that this country needs an opposition and they should be critical of the government without which we don't have a mirror to look at our faces,' he said. 'We think that we are very beautiful but it is the opposition that keeps telling us (that may not be true).' Government MPs, he added, tended to be apple polishers, giving Kuala Lumpur little means of assessing itself accurately. The Malaysiakini interview, which came as the country counts down to tomorrow's polls, revealed a former premier that was critical of both the ruling coalition and the opposition. He criticised Datuk Seri Samy Vellu for not allowing other Indians to have their say in parliament, and fingered him as the source of their main grouse. Asked if he thought Datuk Seri Samy Vellu's departure would improve things, he replied: 'It could be, it could be...because then other voices will be heard.' As for the opposition, Tun Dr Mahathir had little good to say. 'The opposition is not very smart,' he said of their approach. 'There are so many things that they can make an issue of and attack the government but I don't see them doing that.' Keeping this in mind, the former premier predicted that Barisan Nasional (BN) would retain its two-thirds majority tomorrow and win 70 to 75 per cent of the 222 parliament seats - lower than the 91 per cent it won in 2004. But he doubted that BN would be able to seize Kelantan from PAS. 'Kelantan would be very difficult because although the margin is very small, Kelantanese have got a mind of their own, so to speak. If they are living in KL, they are very supportive of the government but if they are living in Kelantan, the peer pressure is very strong.' During the interview, Tun Dr Mahathir also repeated previous criticism of the decision to cancel a number of mega-projects that were inked during his tenure, including the bridge to Singapore and the Bakun dam project. This issue had caused a rift between him and Datuk Seri Abdullah after he left office. 'When I left, I made sure that the party, the government and the finances are in good shape. So when I am told that (my) projects have been postponed because of no money, it's definitely not true,' he said. But he appeared to backtrack from widely reported remarks that he made earlier about having a 'gentleman's agreement' with Datuk Seri Abdullah for the latter to step down after serving as Prime Minister for one term and let Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak take over. 'I want to say this, there was no gentleman's agreement on this. My thinking was that he should serve for one term and give (way to) Najib who by then would be much older to succeed him,' he said. - THE STRAITS TIMES THE OPPOSITION 'There is no possibility for them to win the election and form the government. I mean when you talk about it, people think you are silly. Of course, they say 'When we become the government', but will you become the government? There have been 11 elections so far - your performance is terrible, you're fighting each other.' TUN DR MAHATHIR, on the opposition's chances HIS SUCCESSOR 'It is up to the people to judge. You see, I would be biased. Of course, if you ask a former PM what he thinks of the new PM, he would say 'Oh, he's not good' and all that. That is normal. For the new PM, if he wants to leave his mark...but the unfortunate thing is that the mark caused some losses for us. That is why I was so critical.' TUN DR MAHATHIR, on Datuk Seri Abdullah's performance MIC CHIEF 'I know their (the Indians') main grouse is not with me, their main grouse is with Samy Vellu because with Samy Vellu there, there is no chance for another Indian to come up. When we formed the Barisan Nasional, Umno accepted PAS, another Malay party, into BN...but Samy Vellu insists that nobody else, no other Indian organisation, can come in, and this is frustrating a lot of people who did not agree with him.' TUN DR MAHATHIR, on whether MIC chief Samy Vellu should leave
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