Making a movie about me? Then, tell the whole truth, says Dr M

Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

PETALING JAYA: Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said if anyone were to make a movie of him, he does not want his story to be glorified as the movie should tell the truth about him.

In an interview with Malaysia Airlines magazine Going Places, Mahathir was asked how he would like a movie on his life to be produced.

“Don’t embellish it or say, ‘Oh, he’s a great man.’ Tell the truth,” he said.

In the same interview, Mahathir said a national airline does not have to be government-owned.

“The days when there is a national airline for every country is over. Now you can have a number of airlines.

“One of these can be called a national airline because it carries the symbol (of the nation) but it can be operated by the private sector,” he said.

In July, Mahathir said the government has received four takeover offers for Malaysia Airlines, the majority of which are from locals.

Mahathir previously said several parties had expressed interest in buying over the troubled airline, with the prime minister saying in March that he was open to the idea of a private takeover of the airline.

The results of Skytrax’s annual World’s Top 100 Airlines survey show that Malaysia Airlines has dropped two spots from 36th last year.

The airline has not been ranked in the top 20 since 2014 when it occupied 18th spot. It dropped from the 24th placing in 2015 to 34th in 2016, bagging the 31st spot in 2017 and 34th again last year.

The airline has been trying to transform its operations and return to profitability following two disasters in 2014 when flight MH370 disappeared on his journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, in what remains a mystery till today, and flight MH17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down over eastern Ukraine. - FMT