Mahathir Mohamad quotes

A country without engineering skill and knowledge will never become a developed country.

Being a medical practitioner enables me to get in touch with people, understand their problems, feel sympathetic towards them, and the natural thing is to want to help them, and if you become a politician and if you are successful, you can help them even more.

When you are in the government, you have to demonise your opposition.

Airplanes don't just disappear - certainly not these days with all the powerful communication systems, radio and satellite tracking, and filmless cameras which operate almost indefinitely and possess huge storage capacities.

Democracy for people who are not used to it can undermine stability, resulting in war.

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.

I believe that every leader has a right to implement his own policy. But when I see things that are done that are not right - abuse of power, wrong approaches, wrong strategies, making use of foreign consultants, including those discarded by other countries - I feel that I have to have my say.

Independence means we enjoy freedom. We are not colonised by people. And we can govern our own country and develop it independently so that our people can live a better life.

Democracy for people who are not used to it can undermine stability, resulting in war.