Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak has scoffed at former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad's claim that Malaysia was no longer admired as it was before.

Instead, Salleh said Mahathir's penchant for quarrelling with world leaders while he was in power had caused Malaysians embarrassment.

"I think Mahathir needs to get real. During that same period he is talking about, Mahathir quarrelled with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and launched his ‘Buy British Last’ campaign.

"Plus, he quarrelled with US President Bill Clinton, resulting in the Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating calling Mahathir a recalcitrant.

"Most Malaysians were embarrassed by those events," Salleh said in a blog posting yesterday.

Salleh was responding to Mahathir's blog posting yesterday, in which he said the country's image was in shambles due to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's various scandals.

"There was a time not so very long ago when Malaysia was admired for successfully raising itself from an impoverished third world country into a stable newly industrialised country.

"No one doubted that its announced intention to become a developed country by 2020 would be achieved," Mahathir had said.

However, Salleh said Mahathir was now looking for someone to blame as his Wawasan 2020 was no longer possible.

Salleh said Mahathir is responsible for this as he oversaw two economic crisis beginning with the oil price collapse in 1986 and in 1997.

"It triggered the stock market collapse, which hit Malaysia as well, and Malaysia had to cancel many projects or scale them down because the country no longer had the money.

"Mahathir did not take that possibility into calculation and a decade later in 1997 it happened yet again. So Wawasan 2020 was no longer possible.

"It was a plan mooted under an ideal situation but 1986 and 1997 proved that there is no such thing as an ideal situation.

"Dr Mahathir’s Wawasan 2020 is no longer possible. So he wants to find someone to blame rather than accept the fact that he was wrong and the plan was not really workable," said Salleh.