Siapa Layak Menjadi Pemimpin Malaysia?

BY MAZWIN NIK ANIS

PUTRAJAYA: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is willing to help Barisan Nasional campaign in the next general election provided candidates fielded by the coalition are “clean, honest and straight”.

The former prime minister said he would only want to campaign for candidates who he believed could bring good to the people.

“I believe that people who support the Barisan should be a little bit more selective. They should think, use wisdom in choosing the people they want to support.

“If there are dead wood and corrupt politicians being fielded as candidates, the people should not support them, not even if they are representing Barisan,” he told reporters after a preview of his latest book entitled Dr Mahathir’s selected letters to World Leaders at the Perdana Leadership Foundation yesterday.

Good read: Dr Mahathir (left) at the preview of his latest book in Putrajaya on Wednesday. With him is Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad who wrote the foreword for the book. Dr Mahathir said it was his hope to see the people “using their power as voters” to make changes to the leadership in Barisan and Umno as this was the only way to “clean” the government, claiming “cleansing” could not come from within the party as “everything now is being controlled and any contrary views will not be heard”.

“There is a risk in saying all these things and there will be a chorus of people who will curse me, including some of my former ministers.

“But I hope we will love this country enough to vote for the best candidate,” he said.

Asked if it was true that there was a gentleman's agreement when he resigned in 2003 that Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi would only stay as Prime Minister for only one term, Dr Mahathir said:

“Even if I said that such an agreement was made, I cannot prove it but that was my thinking since he was older than Najib, he should be the PM for a term and then Najib should be able to take over.”

On racial issues, Dr Mahathir said Malaysia had never really attained racial harmony but was able to keep it within control, adding there were quarters that have begun to use religion when taking action.

On his book, he said it contained 70 letters, all correspondence with world leaders on the crises and conflicts in the Middle East during his tenure as the prime minister.

The 239-page book contains letters to and from Dr Mahathir to, among others, former French president Jacques Chirac, Prince Charles the Prince of Wales, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former United States President Bill Clinton and current President George W. Bush.

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/1/31/nation/20182272&sec=nation