KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28: Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad (pic) has said that while the peoples in Tunisia and Egypt had overthrown their regimes, the path towards democracy would be a painful one.
"Power corrupts and will affect the performance of the Government. It is not necessary that the Government which replaces the old regime will be free from corruption. The people may have to try to remove the Government again and again with no certainty the replacements would be any better," wrote Mahathir in his latest blog posting.
Mahathir suggested that the slogan of 'government of the people, by the people and for the people' would have to be now adapted to realities, saying reforming the institutions of the country and holding elections were both not easy.
"You cannot have the people directly governing themselves. You will need to have a new constitution and political parties which will enable representatives of the people to form the Government. For this, elections will have to be held. Unfortunately elections can be manipulated.
"There will be a rush to grab for power by nationalists and by opportunists. It will not always be the good people who will win to form Governments," said Mahathir, whose rule had also seen mass scale street demonstrations following his sacking of his deputy Anwar Ibrahim in 1998.
Mahathir, who has been widely criticised for subverting Malaysia's institutions such as the police and judiciary, said it would be difficult to instil professionalism in the army and police in order to make them apolitical.
"Their political affiliations will be private as they will have to serve whichever party forms the Government. It is going to be hard. The temptation to seize power will plague the minds of many," he said, but was quick to add that he hoped the people's sacrifices would "be rewarded with Governments that they had dreamed off".
http://en.harakahdaily.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2355:mahathir-lectures-egypt-and-tunisia-on-birth-pangs-of-revolution&catid=34:primary&Itemid=56
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