Exercising democratic rights could place society in a never-ending vicious cycle of instability and insecurity, said former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He said this is because dissatisfied minorities who lose in elections will use these rights to undermine and bring down the elected government.

The deposed government, he said, would then resort to the same thing to try to regain power and this would feed into the same cycle ad infinitum, he said.

"Nowadays...people take to the streets and disrupt business, (the) economy, stop the economy from growing  and people from enjoying peace,” he said at a luncheon talk at an international forum preceding the Umno annual general assembly at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur today.

NONE "(The losing minority will) complain that the elections were fraudulent, that the group which won had cheated, and bring down the elected government. There is no stability and security when all people want is security and peace.”

Speaking on the conference theme of conflict and conciliation, he said the situation is compounded when the dissatisfaction of minority groups are ridden upon by those seeking power.

"Now foreign countries with vested interests want to see regime change. (They) make use of the minority by providing financial support and newspaper propaganda.

"When there is regime change, the minority sets up the government but there isn't stability and security because the majority want to demonstrate to bring that government down.”

Asked to elaborate at a press conference later, Mahathir said the same thing could happen in Malaysia if the BN wins the next election with only a slim majority.

He claimed that the opposition is already setting the stage to agitate for a regime change this way.

"It is possible. They are already starting the process now (by) creating an atmosphere where people are told that the next election will be unfair and that they must be prepared to reject the results and hold demonstrations and disrupt the economy,” he said.

NONE "This is so (the losing party) can go into power. That's why they have (the coalition for clean and fair elections) Bersih, yesterday's demonstration (against rare earth processing company Lynas)...”

He also said PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim's attempt to obtain oversight of the polls by Australia is a ruse to later say that cheating had occurred.

"Australia said 'No way'. So, when they (the opposition) lose, they will say, 'Look, nobody was looking, these people cheated'," Mahathir said.

He claimed that Anwar, who was his deputy until sacked in 1998, is "skilled" in preparing such a means of regime change.

"When he was in government he was against demonstrations but when he was out, it (has become) the instrument to put him into Putrajaya," he said snidely.

'Follow Malaysia's lead'

In his speech, Mahathir invited other nations to follow Malaysia's example of conflict resolution as this has managed to avert war with all five of its neighbours.

He said land disputes with Indonesia and Singapore were taken to the World Court while a dispute over gas-rich waters was solved by agreeing to share the area with Thailand.

NONE In any case, he said, Malaysia could not possibly go to war as Malaysians are "cowards who don't want to be injured or to die but would rather enjoy life".

War with Indonesia was also out of the question, he said, as with 10 times the population of Malaysia, Indonesians merely need to walk over Malaysia to claim victory.

"I could have decided to build a strong air force to fight Indonesia but I didn't. As PM, I had the authority to do silly things but I didn't," he joked.

The remaining area of conflict, he said, is with the Philippines with politicians there gaining popularity by claiming that Sabah or the Northern British Borneo belongs to their country.

"We don't mind as they don't do anything about it," he added.

Dr M: We've reformed, what more do you want?