MALAYSIA NEEDS STRONG GOVERNMENT FOR ECONOMIC RECOVERY: DR M

BEIJING, April 29 (Bernama) -- Malaysia must return to having a strong government to manage the global financial crisis and place the country back on the growth path, Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Wednesday.

Recalling the Asian crisis over a decade ago, the former prime minister said
the country could implement radical and unorthodox measures to recover because
the government had two-thirds majority in Parliament to support its policies.

The calm political situation then also allowed the government to think
through how it could tackle the crisis which had affected Malaysians of all
races, he said.

"It is important that we try to return to a situation where the government
is strong, where the government can have two-thirds majority," he said after
delivering a lecture at the prestigious Peking University on lessons for Asia
from the global meltdown.

"Hopefully, if the present government navigates well the economy as well as
politics, at the next election, we can win two-thirds majority and go back to
the growth path we had for the past 50 years."


Dr Mahathir, who arrived Tuesday for a three-day private visit, was asked by
a Malaysian student if the present economic crisis would lead to political
crisis back home.

He said a government without a strong majority and beset with demonstrations
would not be able to tackle a crisis when it was being attacked and uncertain of
its position.

"But I think if people are sensible enough, they will give sufficient
support to the government," he said.

He was accompanied by Dr Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, Malaysian ambassador
to China Syed Norulzaman Kamarulzaman and business tycoon Mokhtar
Al-Bukhary to the lecture attended by about 200 Masters students at the
111-year-old university's National School of Development.

Dr Mahathir is a guest of the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs.
He last visited China in 2005, two years after he stepped down as prime minister
after 22 years.