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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia , Aug 19 (AP) \u2014 Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Friday accused the U.S. of trying to provoke a war in Taiwan, and in a wide-ranging interview also said he expects Malaysia\u2019s graft-tainted ruling party to hold general elections in the coming months.<\/p>\n
Mahathir, a two-time prime minister long known as a critic of the West and its geopolitics, warned that the U.S. was antagonizing China through recent visits to Taiwan by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others. China considers the self-ruled island democracy part of its territory and regards such visits as meddling in its affairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina has allowed Taiwan to remain by itself. No problem. They didn\u2019t invade. If they wanted to invade, they could have invaded. They didn\u2019t. But America is provoking (them) so that there can be a war, so that the Chinese will make the mistake of trying to occupy Taiwan,\u201d the 97-year-old Mahathir said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen there is an excuse … for the U.S. to help Taiwan, even fight against China and sell a lot of arms to Taiwan,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Following Pelosi\u2019s visit, China launched large-scale military drills surrounding the island and fired ballistic missiles into the sea. Beijing also warned Washington not to encourage Taiwan to try to make its de facto independence permanent, a step China says would lead to war.<\/p>\n
In Malaysia, Mahathir said the ruling United Malays National Organization is likely preparing for snap polls that it will most likely \u201cwin big.\u201d He believes that a number of Malay voters have returned to UMNO because they were offered money and other incentives.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they will want to have the general elections this year. If possible, maybe as soon as two or three months from now, because they feel that at this moment the public still looks up at them, and the opposition is broken up, disorganized,\u201d he told the AP.<\/p>\n
Elections are not due until September 2023, but some UMNO members, including ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak and party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who are both fighting graft charges, have been rallying for an earlier vote.<\/p>\n
Mahathir was an UMNO prime minister for 22 years until his retirement in 2003. He was inspired to return to politics by the massive looting of the 1MDB state fund during Najib\u2019s term in office, and rode a wave of public anger to lead the opposition to a historic victory in 2018 polls that ousted Najib\u2019s government.<\/p>\n
Mahathir became the world\u2019s oldest head of government at 93, but his reformist alliance collapsed in less than two years due to defections. UMNO returned to power and now leads a new coalition government.<\/p>\n
Mahathir has formed a new party, Pejuang, and a Malay alliance to contest 120 Malay-dominated parliamentary seats. He said his mission remained the same: to \u201cclean-up\u201d the country and form a graft-free government.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know about being prime minister candidate, but if I am strong enough, if I am healthy enough, if they want me to contest, I will contest,\u201d Mahathir said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will fight, even if it is a losing battle,\u201d he said. \u201cI will fight because I believe in principle. It\u2019s not what happens to me. I believe in principle. I believe that this is a great country which can become a developed country, but under the crooks you will never become.\u201d<\/p>\n
Najib has maintained his innocence. With his final appeal against a 12-year prison sentence in the first of several trials ongoing in the country\u2019s top court, he would not be allowed to run in the event of an early election.<\/p>\n
Mahathir said he believes Najib hopes to make a political comeback with an UMNO win.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the elections, if UMNO wins, he expects an UMNO government to ask for a pardon for him \u2014 and when he gets a pardon, (and is) cleared completely, he can then become prime minister,\u201d Mahathir said. \u201cHe will do it. Believe me, he will do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the international front, Mahathir described President Joe Biden as an \u201cineffective\u201d leader.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a way, he\u2019s very anti-Islam, he\u2019s not being fair. He allows Israel to commit all kinds of crime, genocide, and he does nothing. He supports them,\u201d said Mahathir, who has been accused of anti-Semitism for attacking Jews, whom he blames for a humanitarian crisis in Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n
He also railed against the European Union over the Russian war on Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat NATO is doing, the EU is doing is to provoke some more and asking the Ukrainians to fight,\u201d Mahathir said. \u201cThey promised to accept Ukraine (into NATO) but they didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia , Aug 19 (AP) \u2014 Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Friday accused the U.S. of trying to provoke a war in Taiwan, and in a wide-ranging interview also said he expects Malaysia\u2019s graft-tainted ruling party to hold general elections in the coming months. Mahathir, a two-time prime minister long known […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-198298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}