Malaysia Not A Totalitarian State, Says Dr Mahathir

KUALA LUMPUR, May 10 (Bernama) -- Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on Monday dismissed claims made by opposition leaders that the country was a totalitarian state because they (opposition) have not been able to form the government.
"The opposition said that we are a totalitarian state because we have had the same party ruling the country since independence, but we have seen that the opposition had a chance to win at all levels of elections and they are also able to form governments (in several states).
"So this proves that Malaysia is a democratic country because opposition can actually win," he said at the Malaysian Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators 50th Anniversary Lecture entitled "Leading Governance - A Reflection of the Malaysian Experience" here Monday.
Dr Mahathir also stressed the importance of Barisan Nasional (BN) regaining its two-thirds majority in Parliament to have a balance of power in Parliament.
"During my time, we emphasized the need for the government to have a strong majority. We must get the two-thirds majority so that we can govern the country without being hampered by the opposition.
"Having a two-third majority is also important because it balances the power of dissent on the part of the opposition and the power of the government to carry out its job as the governing coalition," he said.
Dr Mahathir said an excellent leader must not only have good ideas but also know how to implement them.
"One example is our ports. We built a nice port in Port Klang, and spent billions of ringgit building it. One day we asked how many containers does ports in Malaysia handle and a study was conducted. It was then found ports in Malaysia only handled one million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU).
"And we asked how many Singapore handled...12 million (TEUs), this is obviously not right, we spent so much money building ports and yet they are not functioning.
"So we had to tell the minister concerned to go down and find out whether the ports were functioning well or not and if there were problems, let's solve the problems and if they are not efficient, let's make them efficient, and today we are handling about 15 million TEU's throughout the country," he said.

tunku :if the election is not fair etc in Malaysia then the opposition will never win seats but here they can win and rule some states.it is very obvious that the democracy in Malaysia is very much alive.the opposition is just showing their frustration by accusing that the country was a totalitarian state because they (opposition) have not been able to form the government.it is sad that we don't have an opposition that is strong and can lead the country to a greater height.our opposition parties are still with personal agendas more than national agendas. whenever there is election, they will attack government most rather than telling people what can they do and what will they do.so far, they have failed to shine in the states they are rulling.
Dr Mahathir is right, leaders must not only have good ideas but must know how to implement them too.Najib has put many good ideas and policies and now it is the time for implementation.implementation is very important from now on as it will be the key measure of Najib's ruling.