In mature democracies, losers in an election do not go to the streets to nullify results, said former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.   

Instead, he said, they wait for the next election and try again.

"We want democracy, but someone must lose if someone wins. It's not possible to have a win-win (situation) when we oppose each other.

"What should losers do? They wait for the next election and try again. That's what happens in mature democracies," he said.

Referring to the situation in Egypt in his speech at a forum on the Palestinian struggle, he said what is happening there is not democracy but a game of "musical chairs" and "charades".

While he was speaking about the deaths of at least 300 pro-Morsi protesters demonstrating against the military which unseated Egypt’s democratically-elected president, Mahathir's message also has resonated with the political developments here.

Thousands nationwide rallied in protest when Pakatan Rakyat lost the closely fought May 5 general election,which the opposition coalition claimed was rigged.

There is still widespread dissatisfaction among the 51 percent of the electorate who voted for Pakatan.

The BN returned to power with 133 out of 222 parliamentary seats according to the ‘first past the post’ system.

Both Pakatan and BN are contesting the results of several constituencies through election petitions.

‘Sure, blame the Zionists’

Meanwhile, asked if Malaysia has something to learn from what is happening in Cairo, Mahathir said that in Malaysia, too, there are people who want to cause unrest and topple the government.

“Some people like to see these things happen here (which) can bring down the government but I think Malaysians are less emotional.

“Malaysians are nice people. They don’t like killing each other, except nowadays when killing is a little bit more frequent. Everyday somebody gets shot,” he said, referring to the recent spate of shootings.

Mahathir was also asked about speculation that the Zionists are behind the Egyptian military.

“Blame the Zionists but we (Muslims) do the killing. Those nasty Israelis... Maybe the people killing are Israeli, but they do look Arab to me,” he quipped.

In his heartfelt speech earlier, Mahathir, who was almost in tears, said that by killing each other, Muslims are already doing the job for Islam’s enemies.