Dr M on Hew's comic: Not for us to promote China's ideology to our children

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said while Malaysia regards China as a friend and ithe Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has benefitted the country, it is not for Malaysia to promote Beijing's ideology to our children.

Mahathir said this in reference to attempts to circulate a comic on the BRI by former DAP activist Hew Kuan Yau in schools, which the Education Ministry has put a stop to.

"I believe China will have great influence in future. But for the moment, it is not for us to promote Chinese ideology, but to find out how we can benefit from it.

"The young people must understand the problems, strategies and policies of our own country first, so when they come up (to face) with other people's strategies, they know their place.

"As much as we didn't like Western influence in our schools, we do not want any other country to have undue influence over our young people," he said during a question-and-answer session during the 'ISI Malaysia Praxis Conference 2019' in Kuala Lumpur today.

Mahathir said Malaysia supports China's initiatives, but cannot do so blindly.

"Malaysia has always regarded China as a friend, except for a period in our early independence when China was practising communism. Now China has adopted a new policy and it has benefited the country a lot.

"We want to continue our good relations with China. We support the idea of one belt, one road - but we have to find exactly what this means. We cannot just, without proper study, give 100 percent support to this idea," he said.

Hew, who is a cultural museum curator, had argued that the comic book was meant to explain the BRI.

He dismissed accusations that the book is DAP or communist propaganda.

Education Minister Maszlee Malik, on the other hand, had emphasised that his ministry did not approve the distribution of the comic.

"Schools are neutral educational institutions and should not be the place for political propaganda," Maszlee said in a Facebook posting.

On a separate matter, Mahathir explained that Asean as a regional organisation has been doing a good job at protecting the sea trade routes, namely the Straits of Malacca and South China sea.

"We have to maintain the peace and stability in these strategic areas where all the trade passes through our channels from East and West.

"At this moment, passage through this trade area is free [...] Our appeals to the main powers is to keep all weapons of war from this area.

"So far they have not deliberately created any crisis. To that extent, we have succeeded in keeping peace in the Asean region."

Lauding Asean, Mahathir said that even the European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) "are not functioning very well".

Commenting on the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030, Mahathir stressed that it is not a 10-year plan but a 40-year plan. It is a continuation of Vision 2020 which was launched in 1991.

"From now on, it is about correcting the mistakes of Vision 2020. It is also about taking advantage of Vision 2020's achievements and strengthening the modus operandi of achieving the targets that were set in 1991.

"So, it's not a 10-year plan. It is a 40-year plan," he said. - Mkini