Almost 12 years after stepping down from the prime minister's rule which has been said to be authoritarian, Dr Mahathir Mohamad has yet to soften his views about the 'failings' of democracy.

"This thing called democracy is a very dangerous idea, isn't it? Look at the stability during Hosni Mubarak's time (in Egypt); everything was stable.

"Of course, there were a few people who had to spend time as the 'government's guests' in 'special places', but now look at what is happening to Egypt," he told a talk themed 'My Most Dangerous Idea', hosted by the Cooler Lumpur Festival 2015.

He pointed out that there were always efforts to overthrow dictators but those rebelling always ended up fighting each other to sit in the top post.

During the talk, when asked by a Singaporean on what he thought was the most dangerous development after the death of its founding father Lee Kuan Yew, he candidly replied: "You are in danger of becoming democratic".

Mahathir related that his most dangerous test when he was prime minister was in dealing with the financial crisis in 1997 when the ringgit collapsed.

"I was blaming myself for one year and I found that it was not very productive, so I had the dangerous idea of fixing the exchange rate of the Malaysian ringgit which was against conventional wisdom," he said.

Entertaining the audience

Known more for his sarcasm, Mahathir used his wry sense of humour to entertain the audience at the festival.

He joked that he considered quitting as prime minister to become a currency trader, after discovering how they could manipulate currencies.

On another matter, Mahathir joked that being a politician was the best job, as no qualification was required.

"I must tell you, I qualify in frying bananas. This was what I ate during the war; I used to fry bananas and sell them.

"Being qualified as a banana fritter 'fryer', I was regarded qualified to become prime minister," he said to laughter from the crowd.