Dr Mahathir Mohamad speaking to students at Columbia University in New York.
“We can preach, pray, ask them not to do such things. But we don’t invade countries to remove such governments,” he told a forum of students at the prestigious university. Mahathir said Malaysia had always had friendly diplomatic ties with Myanmar and had even sympathised and campaigned for former diplomat and current State Counsellor of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi to be released when she was facing house arrest back in 1989.He also noted a lack of revolt by the Myanmars themselves, saying that it seemed that there were “… no Myanmar people wanting to overthrow this government, to take the risk to fight … to remove the government that is obviously very cruel”.
However, he said such rules should not affect trade, but promote trade, adding that Malaysia has always been a trading nation and trades with more than 190 countries. When questioned about the affirmative action for the Bumiputeras, Mahathir said this was meant to ease racial tension by minimising economic disparity.