ID :
121387
Tue, 05/11/2010 - 12:21
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/121387
The shortlink copeid
MALAYSIA NOT A TOTALITARIAN STATE, SAYS DR MAHATHIR
KUALA LUMPUR, May 11 (Bernama) -- Former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir
Mohamad Monday dismissed claims made by opposition leaders that the country was a totalitarian state because they (opposition) have not been able to form the government.
"The opposition said that we are a totalitarian state because we have had
the same party ruling the country since independence, but we have seen that the
opposition had a chance to win at all levels of elections and they are also
able to form governments (in several states).
"So this proves that Malaysia is a democratic country because opposition can
actually win," he said at the Malaysian Institute of Chartered Secretaries and
Administrators 50th Anniversary Lecture entitled "Leading Governance - A
Reflection of the Malaysian Experience" here Monday.
Dr Mahathir also stressed the importance of National Front (Barisan Nasional
- BN) regaining its two-thirds majority in Parliament to have a balance of power
in Parliament.
"During my time, we emphasized the need for the government to have a strong
majority. We must get the two-thirds majority so that we can govern the country
without being hampered by the opposition.
"Having a two-third majority is also important because it balances the power
of dissent on the part of the opposition and the power of the government to
carry out its job as the governing coalition," he said.
Dr Mahathir said an excellent leader must not only have good ideas but also
know how to implement them.
"One example is our ports. We built a nice port in Port Klang, and spent
billions of ringgit building it. One day we asked how many containers does ports
in Malaysia handle and a study was conducted. It was then found ports in
Malaysia only handled one million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU).
"And we asked how many Singapore handled...12 million (TEUs), this is
obviously not right, we spent so much money building ports and yet they are not
functioning.
"So we had to tell the minister concerned to go down and find out whether
the ports were functioning well or not and if there were problems, let's solve
the problems and if they are not efficient, let's make them efficient, and today
we are handling about 15 million TEU's throughout the country," he said.
-- BERNAMA
Mohamad Monday dismissed claims made by opposition leaders that the country was a totalitarian state because they (opposition) have not been able to form the government.
"The opposition said that we are a totalitarian state because we have had
the same party ruling the country since independence, but we have seen that the
opposition had a chance to win at all levels of elections and they are also
able to form governments (in several states).
"So this proves that Malaysia is a democratic country because opposition can
actually win," he said at the Malaysian Institute of Chartered Secretaries and
Administrators 50th Anniversary Lecture entitled "Leading Governance - A
Reflection of the Malaysian Experience" here Monday.
Dr Mahathir also stressed the importance of National Front (Barisan Nasional
- BN) regaining its two-thirds majority in Parliament to have a balance of power
in Parliament.
"During my time, we emphasized the need for the government to have a strong
majority. We must get the two-thirds majority so that we can govern the country
without being hampered by the opposition.
"Having a two-third majority is also important because it balances the power
of dissent on the part of the opposition and the power of the government to
carry out its job as the governing coalition," he said.
Dr Mahathir said an excellent leader must not only have good ideas but also
know how to implement them.
"One example is our ports. We built a nice port in Port Klang, and spent
billions of ringgit building it. One day we asked how many containers does ports
in Malaysia handle and a study was conducted. It was then found ports in
Malaysia only handled one million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU).
"And we asked how many Singapore handled...12 million (TEUs), this is
obviously not right, we spent so much money building ports and yet they are not
functioning.
"So we had to tell the minister concerned to go down and find out whether
the ports were functioning well or not and if there were problems, let's solve
the problems and if they are not efficient, let's make them efficient, and today
we are handling about 15 million TEU's throughout the country," he said.
-- BERNAMA
