Yogyakarta (Indonesia), Oct 22: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad today accused the "great exponents of democracy" of "terrorising the world" after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Mahathir did not specify any country by name in a speech in this central Javanese town, but his comments appeared to be aimed at two of the outspoken leader's favourite targets, the United States and Israel.
"We see states launching vicious, massive retaliation, not just to kill suspected terrorists but (also) his family, his home, his village and his town," said Mahathir, who is under fire for comments last week in which he maintained that "Jews rule the world". "It would be ridiculous to think that such attacks do not terrorise the innocent. In fact the terror is even greater, it is systematic and executed with heavy weapons in the hands of trained soldiers," he said.
Mahathir, 77, is leaving office later this month after 22 years in power. He has transformed Malaysia, which is 60 per cent Muslim, from a tin- and rubber-producing former British colony into one of Asia's most wealthy and industrialised nations. In the past, he has accused US President George W. Bush of trying to "out-terrorise the terrorists" with an ill-directed war on al-Qaida and said Australia's Prime Minister John Howard behaved like a "white-man sheriff in some black country". Bureau Report