Mahathir bin Mohamad

Mahathir bin Mohamad (born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician who was the country's Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003 and 2018 to 2020.

Mahathir Mohamad in 2023

Quotes

1970–1999

• The Malays are spiritually inclined, tolerant and easy-going. The non-Malays, and especially the Chinese, are materialistic, aggressive and have an appetite for work. For equality to come about, it is necessary that these strikingly contrasting races adjust to each other.
  • The Malay Dilemma (1970).

• The Jews are not merely hook-nosed, but understand money instinctively.
  • The Malay Dilemma (1970).

• It is disgraceful that you should be used by adults for the purpose of trying to shame us ... The timber industry helps hundreds of thousands of poor people in Malaysia. Are they supposed to remain poor because you want to study tropical animals? Is your study more important than filling the stomachs of poor people? Are Malaysians expected to lose millions of pounds so that you can study animals? [...] I hope you will tell the adults who made use of you to learn all the facts. They should not be too arrogant and know how best to run a country…
  • Letter to Darrel Abercrombie (1987, quoted at Free Malaysia Today

2000–present

• It's quite obvious that when the Eastern bloc was still there, it was a bustle between capitalism and communism. Once communism was defeated, then capitalism could expand and show its true self. It's no longer constrained by the need to be nice, so that people will choose their so-called free-market system as opposed to the centrally planned system. So because of that, nowadays there is nothing to restrain capital, and capital is demanding that it should be able to go anywhere and do whatever it likes.
  • "Commanding Heights" interview with PBS (2 July 2001).

• Clearly Islam the religion is not the cause of terrorism. Islam, as I said, is a religion of peace. However through the centuries, deviations from the true teachings of Islam take place. And so [people who call themselves] "Muslims" kill despite the injunction of their religion against killing especially of innocent people.
  • Speech in New York City Islam, Terrorism, and Malaysia's Response (page 2). Asia Society (4 February 2002).

• We [Muslims] are actually very strong. 1.3 billion people cannot be simply wiped out. The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.
  • Speech to a summit of 57 Islamic countries (16 October 2003), as cited in "Mahathir attack on Jews condemned", CNN (17 October 2003)

• We are up against a people who think. They survived 2,000 years of pogroms not by hitting back but by thinking.
• They invented Socialism, Communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong, so that they can enjoy equal rights with others. With these they have now gained control of the most powerful countries and they, this tiny community, have become a world power.
  • Speech to a summit of 57 Islamic countries (16 October 2003), as cited in "Muslim reaction to Mahathir speech", BBC News (18 October 2003)

• History should remember Blair and Bush as the killers of children or as the lying prime minister and president.
  • Perdana conference, Kuala Lumpur, cited in "Malaysian ex-PM: Blair and Bush are 'evil murderers'". Irish Examiner. 5 October 2007. 

• We need an opposition to remind us if we are making mistakes. When you are not opposed you think everything you do is right.
  • The Star (Malaysian publication, December 2005).

• I believe that the country should have a strong government but not too strong. A two-thirds majority like I enjoyed when I was prime minister is sufficient but a 90% majority is too strong.
  • December 2005, on his successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's Parliamentary majority of 92%. [1]

• I believe that if that bastard leaves, we then won't be bastardised.
  • in reference to Prime Minister Najib Razak during a speech at Pasir Gudang on 29 August 2015. Previously, Najib Razak had warned that Malaysian Malays would be "bastardised" were UMNO to lose power in the government, raising controversy by using a swear word (Malay "bangsat", loosely translated as "anus") in his speech.

• To be a great leader, one needs to have good strategies, be knowledgeable and able to predict the future. "Dr M on what makes a great leader" malaysiakini (13 August 2009)

• I am glad to be labeled anti-Semitic [...] How can I be otherwise when the Jews who so often talk of the horrors they suffered during the Holocaust show the same Nazi cruelty and hard-heartedness.
  • Personal blog entry (2012), as cited in "Malaysia’s Newly Elected Prime Minister Has a Troubling History of Hating Jews", Tablet (24 May 2018).

• We call upon all Malaysians, irrespective of race, religion, political situation, creed or parties, young and old, to join us in saving Malaysia from the government headed by Najib Razak. We must rid ourselves of Najib as prime minister. If he’s allowed to go on, the damage will be worse and worse.
  • Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's move to oust Prime Minister Najib Razak, quote above read from a joint statement endorsed by prominent members from the ruling party, opposition, and civil society groups, quoted on Channel News Asia, "Dr Mahathir movement will be bad for country: Malaysia Foreign Affairs Minister" (5 March 2016).

• There is one race that cannot be criticized. If you are antisemitic, it seems almost as if you are a criminal [...] Antisemitic is a term that is invented to prevent people from criticizing the Jews for doing wrong things.
  When somebody does wrong, I don't care how big they are. They may be powerful countries but if they do something wrong, I exercise my right of free speech. They criticize me, why can't I criticize them?
  • Interview with the Associated Press (13 August 2018), as cited in "Malaysian prime minister justifies his license to be antisemitic", The Jerusalem Post (16 August 2018)
  • "Antisemitism [is] hatred of and hostility toward the Jews, at times including the belief that they pose a threat to society and should be eliminated. The term was coined in 1879 by the German anti-Jewish writer Wilhelm Marr to refer specifically to "scientific" rather than "religious" opposition to Jews, but it is generally applied to all manifestations of hatred of the Jewish people." (Adele Berlin (ed.) The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion, 2nd ed., 2011)

• I am exercising my right to free speech. Why is it that I can't say something against the Jews, when a lot of people say nasty things about me, about Malaysia, and I didn't protest, I didn’t demonstrate?
  • Speech at Columbia University (25 September 2019), as cited in "'Why can't I say something against Jews?' Malaysia's PM asks at Columbia", The Jerusalem Post (26 September 2019)

• I sympathised with the Jews of Europe who were being oppressed by the Nazis, being arrested and killed in their concentration camps.
  That was then, before the creation of the state of Israel, the oppression of the Arabs and the seizure of Palestine land to build Jewish settlements.
• Jews suffered greatly under the Nazis. That experience should make you understand the sufferings of others ... But you oppressed the Palestinians, hounded them from their country, arrested them and jailed them.
  Very often you kill them. That is what you are doing to them in Jenin [...] With all your arrogance and cruelty how can I keep sympathising over your suffering during the Holocaust? ... It was a sympathy that was misplaced and wasted.
• [Jews are] no longer being subjected to yearly pogroms — genocide. [Instead they] invented and dominate the banking system.
• [On the number of Jews murdered during the Holocaust] Your figure is six million ... How did you arrive at this exact figure?
  It could have been more; it could have been less. If I said it was four million, I may be right or I may be wrong.
  • Comments reproduced in "Ex-Malaysian PM says he rejects 'Jewish propaganda' about six million dead", The Jewish Chronicle (27 July 2023)
  • The ellipsis are in the original text.

Malaysian Politicians Say the Darndest Things [Vol I]

Matahari Books, Kuala Lumpur, 20007 ISBN 978-983-43596-0-7

• We will shoot [any Vietnamese migrants] on sight.
  • Comments (1975) as deputy prime minister on how Malaysia would deal with refugees from Vietnam fleeing the Sino-Vietnamese War, p. 12.

• To be known you have to be a little bit nasty. In any case, I'm nasty only toward governments. I'm not nasty towards business people.
  • As quoted by The Financial Review (19 November 1993).

• We also do not call each other "Bapak This" or "Bapak That, not like in the past. We now only hear people calling "Bapak" (father) at home.
  • p. 22

• Even if I were to kiss and hug Anwar Ibrahim in public, they will say there is a rift because this is what they want to see.
  • p. 31

• This country stands out like a sore thumb trying to impose its European values in Asia as if the good old days when people can shoot aborigines without caring about human rights.
  • Comments reported by the BBC (December 2002), p. 37
  • on Australia and its perceived political interference in Southeast Asia.

• When one is short, one should stand on a box to get a better view. The Twin Towers is [sic] to our ego what the box is to the shorties.
  • Quote from Asia Times (3 September 1999), p. 47.
  • The "twin towers" mentioned are the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004.

On Mahathir bin Mohamad

• He has no close friends that I know of.
  • Daim Zainuddin, as quoted in Malaysian Politicians Say the Darndest Things [Vol I].

• What concerns me right now is that with the actions of Dr Mahathir, who is a lauded statesman and a beloved international icon, the country could become unstable, driving away foreign investors from this nation at the same time. As a former Prime Minister, he should be more understanding of what democracy is, which cannot be achieved the way Dr Mahathir is going about it now.
  • Malaysia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Anifah Aman said in a statement on Saturday (March 5) that he was both surprised and disappointed with Dr Mahathir, quoted on Channel News Asia, "Dr Mahathir movement will be bad for country: Malaysia Foreign Affairs Minister" (5 March 2016).