Iskandar a project for Singapore to grow, says Dr. Mahathir

JOHOR BARU: The Iskandar Malaysia project is a platform for Singapore to expand its sovereignty, said former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
He explained that the project was intended to lure Singaporeans and Malay land would be sold to them for 10 times its worth.
“After the land is sold, the Malays will be driven to live at the edge of the forest and even the forest itself.
“In the end, the area in the Iskandar Malaysia will be filled with Singaporeans and populated with only 15% Malays,” he said yesterday during a forum and dialogue on the recent general election organised by Johor Umno grassroots and MyKMU.net.
Meanwhile, former Parit Sulong MP Datuk Noraini Ahmad said the project was designed to ease the creation of “Singapura Raya” where Singapore wanted to expand its land area.
Earlier in a statement as Perdana Global Peace Organisation chairman, Dr Mahathir condemned the move to allow American oil and gas company Halliburton to set up its RM200mil manufacturing plant in Iskandar Malaysia. He said more than a million Iraqis had died when the United States invaded Iraq, and firms such as Halliburton had benefited from American control of oil flow in West Asia. Dr Mahathir said the Government should not allow such companies to channel their ill-gotten profits to Malaysia.

Dr M: Malays losing grip on political power

PETALING JAYA: The Malays have loosened their grip in political power to the point where non-Malays no longer respect them and their institutions, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.
The former Prime Minister said everything deemed as Malay privileges had been questioned and challenged by the non-Malays.
“And the Malays are not doing anything to counter all these and strengthen their positions,” he said in his latest posting on his blog www.chedet.com.
Instead, he said the Malays asked others to defend their position.
“But this is 'passing the buck' including the excuse that it is all because of Dr Mahathir who led for 22 years and chose Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as his successor.”
Dr Mahathir said that in the 50 years of independence, political power was in the hands of the Malays and they could call themselves tuan (masters).
However, he said the Malays could only become tuan if they were capable and successful economically and socially. “This can be achieved if we are willing to master knowledge and skills in the IT era. But we are lacking efforts in that direction. “We are more inclined to look for short cuts and let others feed us everything.”
Dr Mahathir said the fate of the Malays was in their hands.
He said Malays could not call themselves tuan if they had to depend on others and it was pointless to call themselves tuan when they were actually slaves. “We can be tuan if we act boldly, we are willing to face risk, we make efforts to conquer knowledge and efficiency until there is no need to depend on anyone. “Denying reality will not result in anything. Only by admitting that we have a big problem and we act to overcome it, can we redeem our dignity. Then we can call ourselves tuan. The world will recognise us as the real tuan,” said Dr Mahathir.
In Johor when attending a forum and dialogue on the recent general election organised by Johor Umno grassroots and MYKMU.NET yesterday, he labelled all Umno division chiefs as traitors to the Malays as they did not have the courage to stand up to Pak Lah.
“In a democratic system, the people can force a leader to step down if he is wrong.
“The division leaders sympathised with Pak Lah so they will be the one who destroys Umno,” he said adding that the leaders cared more about their personal interests.