I made no mistake when I was PM, says Dr M

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was at a loss when asked to point out his biggest mistake when he was running the country. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Kamal Ariffin, April 4, 2015.Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today that he committed no mistakes during his time as prime minister, just days after he called for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to resign for allegedly failing to perform well.

When asked at a forum what his biggest mistake was, Dr Mahathir said he was at a loss for an answer, adding that he had never stole government money.

"I'm still trying to find out what mistake that I did. I didn't steal government money. I didn't do quite a lot of things. You tell me what is my mistake," he told a laughing audience.

He said people had accused him of being an authoritarian, but he said that he had voluntarily stepped down as prime minister – something no authoritarian ruler would do.

"I've been accused of being authoritarian. I'm not. If I was, I wouldn't resign. I was enjoying life, you know, flying here and there, all paid for by the government.

"So you can tell me where I went wrong. I would like to study it and write a thesis on it," he said at a forum in Cyberjaya.

He added that many people had told him his biggest mistake was to have resigned as prime minister, but he insisted today he had done the right thing in leaving the government.

He said it was important for leaders not to overstay their welcome, no matter how popular they were.

"By 2002 I thought, well, most things are okay now, financially okay, government is okay, party is okay, I can step down. But I did not expect, of course, what my successors would do.

"So that was not a mistake, that was the right thing to do. Step down," said the country's longest-serving prime minister.

He also contrasted his departure from the government with that of the late Lee Kuan Yew, who had stayed on in the Cabinet after stepping down as prime minister of Singapore.

"Kuan Yew resigned but he was still there as senior minister and minister mentor... I don't want to come back, I've had enough, 22 years," said Dr Mahathir.

Dr Mahathir added that one of his finest acts as prime minister was to ensure there was peace and no racial conflicts in Malaysia.

"I give myself credit for doing the right thing, and I think the best thing I did was during my time, there were no racial conflicts.

"You can't stop extremists from saying all kinds of nasty things, but by and large the people lived in peace with each other."

When asked why Malaysia was not as well-developed as Singapore, Dr Mahathir said the island republic had less problems to deal with.

"They don't have to build many roads. They don't have racial problems. We have racial problems. And they can forget about the minorities and do what they like.

"We can't do that here, we have to think about minorities, think about the rights of people, etc.

"So there is a certain give and take that we have to do here which you don't have to do in Singapore. So I would like to say that he (Lee) had a much easier time than I had."

- TMI