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©The Sun (Used by permission)
by Llew-Ann Phang

SHAH ALAM (May 11, 2008): Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today alleged that the report of the Royal Commission into the Lingam tape affair, was aimed at incriminating him.

"Every attempt is made in order to incriminate me," said Mahathir who claimed he had read extracts of the report.

"Somehow or other, they are trying to suggest that the appointment of judges was influenced by a lot of other people, and although there is no direct connection with me, if you read between the lines, it suggests that the Prime Minister is biased and things like that," he said.

Mahathir alleged this was former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s doing as he (Anwar) had purposefully exposed the tape to undermine lawyer Datuk V.K.Lingam’s credibility.

“Lingam happens to be my lawyer. He is defending me against Anwar, and now, he (Anwar) has succeeded in making Lingam no longer credible, and therefore, he cannot defend me in the court of law," he told reporters after taking part in a Look East Policy forum today.

“So to that point, he has achieved great success but I have always emphasised, when people make such recordings secretly, the intention is to blackmail. I'm afraid the government made successful the blackmail attempt,” he lamented.

Mahathir also alleged that Anwar, who is PKR adviser and de facto Pakatan Rakyat leader, had tampered with the evidence – the video – as he had released the tape in two parts.

"This constitutes tampering of evidence. We don’t know what he kept behind and how many small tapes he has. Of course this will be used in time to blackmail and of course the moment I say this, Anwar must be thinking 'I must sue him for another RM100 million'.

"I can’t pay RM100 million if I’m found guilty. But if I have to go to jail, I’ll go to jail, if I’m to be made a bankrupt, I’ll be a bankrupt. That’s alright," Mahathir said.

Asked to respond to the landmark case of Siti Fatimah Tan Abdullah in Penang who was allowed to renounce Islam, Mahathir said he was not against the decision, "but these cases should refer back to the basic teachings of the religion".

"What is done in Malaysia is not because Islam requires it but because local custom requires it and in Malaysia, we do certain things that other countries find unacceptable, just like how other countries do some things that we do not find acceptable.

“To us, the interpretation of Islam is when you have a conflict or problem, then you have to go back and really refer to actual teachings of the religion, whether or not a convert is allowed to go back to the religion," he added.

On another matter, Mahathir gave credit to the current federal government for its foresight and shifting the focus to the agricultural sector in light of the rising food crisis but said "popular announcements" are not the only solution.

"The government must not just make announcements, popular announcements, of giving out more subsidies and the like but you have to work out how to overcome a food shortage.

"It is not a price problem. Of course the price is still there. That is a problem but even if you reduce the price, if there is no food, there is no food,” he told reporters after sitting in as a panellist in the Look East Policy forum.

In the question and answer session during the forum earlier, Mahathir said the focus on agriculture puts Malaysia on the right track.

Asked to elaborate, he said: "I think people are talking about food shortage and therefore it is very important but of course it only solves food shortage and not problems of unemployment."

The former premier who is also recognised as Malaysia’s Father of Modernisation who placed much emphasis on the growth of industry for the country re-emphasised his view that agriculture will not solve the problem of unemployment in the country.

"Agriculture will never create enough jobs for the unemployed, including graduates. I have always pointed out that one acre of land can support maybe one , not even one, maybe half a farmer.

"But one acre of land, you can put a factory which employs 500 people, so if you want to create jobs, go for industry but if you want to increase food production, then okay, let’s have agriculture," he said, adding that there must be a balance between the two.

"Even during my time, we did not disregard agriculture entirely but our emphasis was on the industry, creating jobs and keeping up with the modern trend,” he said.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced that some RM45 billion, an additional RM5 billion from this year’s allocation for national development, would be spent on subsidies this year to soften the impact of rising prices of goods and fuel in the international market.

He also did not discount the possibility of increasing the subsidy allocation should the food crisis escalate and the world fuel price rose further.

Abdullah had also previously announced an allocation of RM4 billion for efforts countering the food crisis.

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