THERE is a new openness that has granted opportunities to everyone but the opposition is not making good use of it, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He said the opposition can be an important mirror for the government.

“Without a good opposition, the government will be diverted from its duties.

“But the opposition is not using the opportunity of an open Parliament. Instead they call me flip-flop when we change policies,” said Dr Mahathir.

He said it would be foolhardy for the government to implement wrong policies if it were afraid of being called “flip-flop”.

“Particularly, when they use crude words against us. We don’t even have to answer them as they are self destructing,” said the 93-year-old.

Dr Mahathir was responding to a question on whether the new media openness and social media was a problem for his government.

“The media see me all the time and I see it as a chance to answer the allegations against us although we must be smart when replying to them.

“We must always interact with the media to know what Malaysians are thinking or concerned about. When I see the media I take it as an opportunity to answer issues.”

But Dr Mahathir seemed hesitant to commit when asked if the government would do away with all the laws concerning media and freedom of speech.

“There are no absolute freedoms and that’s why there are laws to ensure people don’t overstep their boundaries.

“Some societies know their limitations while others don’t. There’s no one size fits all formula and so we will have to see,” said the prime minister.

On how the government will deal with fake news if the Anti-Fake News Act were repealed, Dr Mahathir said: “There are many fake news today and we need to respond quickly whenever this arises.”

Using the anti-Islam and DAP agent allegations as examples, Dr Mahathir said these fake claims were how the government’s enemies were attacking it.

“DAP doesn’t have many people and without us (the other Pakatan parties) it would fall. They, however, give their opinions and we listen.”

Meanwhile, he said that Malay voters and Chinese voters behaved differently.

“Malays are affected by emotions and don’t analyse properly. If they did, they wouldn’t be so disunited.

“But the Chinese don’t care about parties, they care about what affects their race. If they believe it is bad for them, they will leave and support another party.

“They are not tied to a party to the extent that they cannot rationalise. When they see MCA is not right, they go to DAP and they will do the same if DAP is not right,” said Dr Mahathir.

The Malay nationalist also defended his remarks about the Malay community.

“Malays are not as hardworking as Chinese and Indians who came as labourers and look where they are now.  

“There are many Malays who can compete with the best. But to do that we must have discipline, love competition and have integrity.”

When asked whether Malays were now more “sensitive”, Dr Mahathir said Malays can succeed by embracing the right values.

“A race does not become well-known for its physical attributes but its culture. We need to have good values and be sensitive to the things that are wrong.

“If there’s something wrong we must speak up even when it’s dangerous for us.”

With the right values, any race can succeed, he added. – October 22, 2018.