Dr M laments that youth harping on alleged past misdeeds, including his own

PETALING JAYA: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (pic) has lamented that today’s youth preferred harping on the alleged misdeeds of past Barisan Nasional administrations, including his own, instead of focusing on “national issues”.

The former prime minister said this following his appearance at the recent “What Say Youth” forum that also featured DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang, where both took questions from young Malaysians.

“They asked very intelligent questions but they were mainly about past alleged misdeeds of Barisan governments.

“There was hardly any reference to the present and the future. The main focus was on Ops Lalang,” he wrote in his blog chedet.cc Friday, referring to the 1987 crackdown that saw 106 people detained without trial.

Dr Mahathir said this could be because young Malaysians see no difference between the past and the present.

“The old were born when Malaysia (Malaya) was a European colony or in the early years of independence.

“The young see Malaysia after the country has already developed much. The perceptions of the old and young are therefore different,” he said.

Dr Mahathir said the older generation would see that in the past, no one was worried about a high national debt, 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) or a RM2.6bil political donation.

“Instead, they saw Malaysia as among the tigers of Asia, the best developing country emerging after freedom from colonial rule, the model for the developing world, and many other accolades.

“The old see these - see the differences between then and now. They yearned for the good years of the past.

“For the young, the years of the past were nothing to be proud about,” he said.

He added that the future belongs to these young Malaysians, but their refusal to help change the Government would be “very detrimental to them”.