Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he did not want to become the United Nations (UN) secretary-general because this would place him "under the thumbs of other people".

He said as secretary-general, he would not be able to do anything as the "permanent five will not listen to you".

Mahathir said this when fielding questions from the Diners' Club of the Armed Forces Staff College at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

In his speech earlier, the former premier criticised the UN for failing to serve its members states and helping to right the wrongs perpetrated on innocent people.

"It has been hijacked by a few to serve their cause, or, if these few cannot hijack it, it is bypassed and ignored," he was quoted as saying in a Bernama report today.

As an example, he cited the decision by two of UN's founding members, the United States and the United Kingdom, "to completely ignore the UN and attack Iraq under the pretext of (an) Iraqi threat to use weapons of mass destruction against Britain within 45 minutes of the order being given by Saddam Hussein."

He warned that if US and coalition countries succeeded in carrying out a regime change in Iraq using military force, in future "the US and the coalition countries, particularly old imperialists like Britain, would be busy invading one country after another to carry out regime change."

In that case, he said: "The UN would be simply irrelevant."

Palestine crisis

On the crisis in Palestine, Mahathir said the Palestinians first "tried to regain their land by appealing to world opinion, to the UN."

"The appeals went unheeded," he said, so with other Arab countries they fought a conventional war, which failed and Israel annexed Palestinian land which they had conquered.

"Israel believes it can defeat the Palestinians by out-terrorising the Palestinians.

"Until the world recognises that there is really no difference between conventional and unconventional terrorism, there is not going to be peace in the world.

"Only a democratic UN can resolve the problem with justice and fairness and end all forms of terror," he added.

And since the big powers have rendered the UN impotent through their undemocratic ways, he concluded, "It is they who must reform themselves and subscribe to a United Nations-sponsored, democratic resolution of conflicts via the conference table."

To another question later on whether Asean would consider becoming a junior partner of the UN to form a regional security force, Mahathir said security was not dealt entirely with the use of force but also by diplomatic means, by finding the reason for problems and trying to resolve them.

The function was attended by 150 students, including 31 officers from 26 countries who are working towards their diploma in Strategic Defence Studies at the Malaysian Armed Forces Staff College.

Also present were Deputy Defence Minister Zainal Abidin Zin, Armed Forces Chief Jen Mohd Zahidi Zainuddin, the Armed Forces Staff College Commandent Brig Jen Datuk Jamil Rais Abdullah, college board members and former commandants.