Latest Mahathir Mohamad Quotes from Interviews

• If you know each other well, you want to do business with people you know well. You don't do business with strangers.

  Mahathir Mohamad

  People, Want, Stranger

  "Interview with Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad". Interview with Dr Sue Onslow, commonwealth-oral-history-project.blogs.sas.ac.uk. May 12, 2014.

• Most developing countries would know Malaysia quite well. Why? It is because we believe in contacts. We offer them some help for training, for example. We call it 'technical cooperation'.

  Mahathir Mohamad

  Country, Believe, Training

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

• No one should have extra influence on an organisation. We should always regard ourselves as equals in the organisation, and we should be concerned about each other's problems.

  Mahathir Mohamad

  Should Have, Influence, Problem

  "Interview with Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad". Interview with Sue Onslow, commonwealth-oral-history-project.blogs.sas.ac.uk. February 11, 2015.

• Any organisation has a future, provided it is properly led and it sticks to the objective of that organisation.

  Mahathir Mohamad

  Sticks, Organisation, Objectives

  "Interview with Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad". Interview with Sue Onslow, commonwealth-oral-history-project.blogs.sas.ac.uk. February 11, 2015.

• When you have elections in which 90% or 95% or 99% of those elected come from one party, then I think there is some fraudulent act.

  Mahathir Mohamad

  Party, Thinking, Election

  Source: www.commonwealthoralhistories.org

• Malaysians, during the colonial period, were not given the top positions: we were always subordinate. Fortunately for us, the people who took over were mainly civil servants: people who were serving the Government.

  Mahathir Mohamad

  Government, People, Given

  "Interview with Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad". Interview with Sue Onslow, commonwealth-oral-history-project.blogs.sas.ac.uk. February 11, 2015.

• I know the situation of the Commonwealth generally, and I know that the aim should be to make the Commonwealth much more relevant to the poorer countries.

  Mahathir Mohamad

  Country, Should, Relevant

  "Interview with Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad". Interview with Sue Onslow, commonwealth-oral-history-project.blogs.sas.ac.uk. February 11, 2015.

• The UN is hardly democratic.

  Mahathir Mohamad

  Democratic

  "Interview with Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad". Interview with Sue Onslow, commonwealth-oral-history-project.blogs.sas.ac.uk. February 11, 2015.

• The Commonwealth is a mixture of developing and developed world, in which the developed countries were very influential and their policies hold sway most of the time.

  Mahathir Mohamad

  Country, World, Mixtures

  Interview with Sue Onslow, commonwealthoralhistories.org. May 12, 2014.

• I thought that the United Nations is a creature of the five super-powers who were given veto powers. I don't like veto powers at all.

  Mahathir Mohamad

  Given, Veto, United Nations

  "Interview with Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad". Interview with Sue Onslow, commonwealth-oral-history-project.blogs.sas.ac.uk. February 11, 2015.

• Even in South Africa, the Commonwealth were not doing anything, and their attitude was to tolerate apartheid in South Africa. There was a lot of lip service being paid to the need to stop this practice, but nothing was done.

  Mahathir Mohamad

  Attitude, Practice, Lips

  "Interview with Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad". Interview with Sue Onslow, commonwealth-oral-history-project.blogs.sas.ac.uk. February 11, 2015.

• Membership of an organisation is good, as long as you can make yourself heard.

  Mahathir Mohamad

  Long, Membership, Heard

  "Interview with Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad". Interview with Sue Onslow, commonwealth-oral-history-project.blogs.sas.ac.uk. February 11, 2015.

• Actually, I invited many Commonwealth leaders to come to Malaysia. They did not accept my invitation. By that, I mean, they didn't say they didn't accept, but they just didn't come here.

  Mahathir Mohamad

  Mean, Leader, Accepting

  "Interview with Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad". Interview with Sue Onslow, commonwealth-oral-history-project.blogs.sas.ac.uk. February 11, 2015.

• When I became Prime Minister, I looked back on what was done before – what were the policies and actions before – and I thought that I need to be critical if I’m going to do anything at all.

  Mahathir Mohamad

  Needs, Done, Action

  "Interview with Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad". Interview with Sue Onslow, commonwealth-oral-history-project.blogs.sas.ac.uk. February 11, 2015.