MALAYSIA'S Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, has blamed excessive democracy for causing homosexuality, economic decline, moral decay, racial intolerance and one-parent families.
Excessive democracy will not be a feature of the Malaysian general elections on April 24 and 25. The result is a foregone conclusion: even the most idealistic opposition politician concedes victory will go to Dr Mahathir's ruling National Front coalition.
Dr Mahathir is Malaysia's longest serving prime minister and unquestionably the most successful. This is his fourth general election since coming to power in July 1981. There is speculation it will be his last: he is now 70 years old and underwent major heart surgery in 1989. Rumours about his state of health persist as does talk of the impatience of his hand-picked successor, Anwar Ibrahim, who was appointed deputy prime minister in late 1993. But many Malaysians find it hard to imagine Dr Mahathir standing down. 'I can't see him giving up power. It is not his style. He will die on the job,' his former deputy, Musa Hitam, said.
Dr Mahathir himself has countered suggestions he is due for retirement by saying he is young by Deng Xiaoping's standards and will serve as long as the people need him. And like the Chinese patriarch, he had survived party expulsion and political exile, gaining the country's highest office in less than 10 years after returning to the ruling party's fold.
Dr Mahathir has never forgotten his training as a medical doctor. His prescription, outlined in his Vision 2020 policy, is to make Malaysia a fully industrialised country - only without the social ills that have come with economic development in the West. He believes in strong medicine but lacks a bedside manner: his solution to the Vietnamese refugee problem was to suggest shooting at Vietnamese boats that came near Malaysian shores; his government proposed whipping as a cure-all for illegal immigration, child abuse and white-collar crime.
He has not hesitated to curb opposition or checks to his power. He has made frequent amendments to the constitution, curbing the power of the monarchy, the judiciary and the press. He has imprisoned critics of the Government without trial, in some cases for years at a time.