KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29 — Malaysia is only a small nation and “cannot help people,” said Malaysia Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Dr Mahathir was referring to a question by the media on whether he would carry on his predecessor Najib Razak`s plans to help America economy by purchasing American aircrafts.
Last September, during a working visit to the US, the so-called King of Cash, Najib Razak, proposed to help “strengthen the US economy” when he met US President Donald Trump.
Najib promised Trump to have state-owned Malaysia Airlines Berhad purchase over US$10 billion (RM42 billion) worth of aircraft from US company Boeing Aircraft Corporation.
“He (Najib) actually said he wanted to help the economy of the United States. Malaysia is a small country. We can’t help people,” Dr Mahathir was quoted as saying in an interview with Stanford University’s Hoover Institution’s executive editor Tunku Varadarajan.
Najib had “tried to bribe” Trump “by offering to buy aircraft and all that,” Dr. Mahathir added.
At his address to the UN general assembly in New YORK, Dr. Mahathir also reiterated that is was unfair for rich, developed countries ( such as USA) to pressure poor nations to buy their weapons that cost billions of dollars.
“Today’s weapons cost millions. Fighter jets cost about 100 million dollars. And maintaining them cost tens of millions. But the poor countries are persuaded to buy them even if they cannot afford. They are told their neighbours or their enemies have them. It is imperative that they too have them.
“So, while their people starve and suffer from all kinds of deprivations, a huge percentage of their budget is allocated to the purchase of arms. That their buyers may never have to use them bothers the purveyors not at all.” he said at the UN- Malaysia World News.
