KUALA LUMPUR — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad emphasised today that it was not Malaysia’s role to promote China’s Belt-Road Initiative, amid the controversy of a propaganda comic with that aim produced by former DAP member Hew Kuan Yau.
The prime minister said the country’s rejection of foreign influence was not only limited to Western countries.
“At the moment, it is not for us to promote China’s ideas and ideologies but to find out how we can benefit from them.
“As much as we didn’t like Western influence in our strategies and schools, we don’t want other countries to have undue influence on our young people,” he said during the forum session of the Malaysian Beyond 2020 conference at Hilton Kuala Lumpur today.
Last week, critics revealed that the comic titled Belt and Road Initiative for Win-Winism edited by Hew and produced by the Asia Comic Culture Museum, where he is a curator, was being distributed to secondary schools in the country.
The comic parroted the Communist Party of China’s political views and controversially described as extremists the Malays who believed in the alleged mistreatment of the Uighur Muslim minority.
After photographs emerged online of Dr Mahathir presenting the comic to China President Xi Jinping during a visit last year, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement disavowing the comic and its contents.
The Education Ministry has said the distribution of the comic to schools was unapproved while the Home Ministry has also said it will investigate.
While leaders of DAP have sought to distance themselves from former member Hew, 43 of the party’s members and lawmakers have spoken up in his defence.
After Pakatan Harapan won the general election last year, Hew was also appointed the chief executive officer of the Malaysia-China Business Council that is headed by DAP chairman Tan Kok Wai. MALAY MAIL
Dr M: Near miracle that Malaysia not bankrupted due to 1MDB monstrosity
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 ― It was a near miracle that Malaysia was not bankrupted due to the damage done by the previous kleptocratic regime as they turned the nation’s coffers into their personal kitty, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.
The prime minister said the damage was not just financial but institutional as well.
“One of the biggest challenges after successfully toppling the kleptocratic regime was mopping up the mess left behind and rebuilding the nation,” he said in his keynote address at the ISIS Malaysia Praxis Conference “Malaysia Beyond 2020”, here.
Dr Mahathir said it would take a lot of effort, time and money, adding that “what we found after we took over was far worse than what we believed was the damaged caused.”
“While 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Berhad) is without doubt a monstrosity, we will never be able to fully fathom the damage it caused the nation,” he said.
Beyond the corruption and the financial shenanigans, the prime minister said, the whole machinery of government was subverted and weakened.
He said a considerable amount of government revenue now have to go to pay debts, leaving inadequate funds for operation and development.
“It is a near miracle that this country was not bankrupted,” he said, adding that for the country to recover and to grow, the machinery of government must be restored and made efficient.
“This means zero corruption, if possible. All efforts have been made to achieve this. Maybe we have achieved some success because growth has been maintained,” he said.
He noted that some of the targets set out in the Vision 2020 crafted in 1991 by the government led by himself then towards turning Malaysia into a developed nation by 2020, would not be achievable by next year having been derailed by self-serving leaders.
These targets have not been abandoned but have been incorporated into the Shared Prosperity blueprint and what the nation was unable to achieve next year, hopefully would be achieved by 2030 and beyond, he said.
He said while the country aims to increase the incomes of all groups, ethnic, urban, rural or states, it must also work to upskill Malaysians in various sectors.
“The bottom line is that we want to provide a decent standard of living for all Malaysians and hopefully regain our status as an Asian Tiger,” he said.
“The objective is to make every single Malaysian feel that he or she has a stake in the country and to achieve that we have to ensure sustainable development and a fair distribution of economic wealth through equitable growth at all levels of incomes, ethnic groups, states and regions,” he stressed.
Dr Mahathir said it was not merely a dream and that the government has incorporated the Shared Prosperity strategies into the country’s 2020 Budget and expected that it would be all systems go by 2021.
Malaysia’s human resources need to be developed so as to be agile in adapting rapid technological advancement as smart technology allows developing countries to leapfrog developed ones of a more conventional era, he said.
He said a new Malaysian society that is psychologically liberated, secure and developed must be created and a mature democratic society should be the objective.
“A fully moral and ethical society must also be established, being mindful of past lessons. Likewise a mature and tolerant society must be nurtured while disparities are reduced,” he said.
Systems, institutions and practices must also ensure the creation of an economically just society, said Dr Mahathir, adding that the country’s future stability will then be assured and sustained.
“There has been progress in meeting some of these challenges, even if it has not been consistent. What is more important is that ― as we stand together on the threshold of 2020, we must learn from our past shortcomings and redouble our efforts,” he told the two-day conference organised by Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) which ends tomorrow. ― Bernama
MALAY MAIL / BERNAMA
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