Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who has often claimed that all means of dislodging Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had been blocked, is now grumbling about the inherent flaws of democracy.

Democracy, he said, was based on the premise that people would surely choose good leaders.

“However, many now rue the day they chose democracy.

“Studies have shown that the system is very open to abuse and the wrong people may get elected who will not only abuse the power conferred on them, but who are able to stay in power for decades.

“These leaders would become dictators,” Mahathir, who was prime minister for 22 years, said in a blog posting today.

Mahathir said democracy worked in most western countries because of the culture of its people but the same cannot be said for young democracies.

“They (people in western countries) are much more mature and experienced. They know the price they and the whole country would have to pay if they choose the wrong person to lead.

“The culture of corruption is not as rampant in these countries. The separation of power between the legislative, the executive and the judiciary is respected and observed.

“The wrongdoers in any of the institutions cannot hope to get away with their misdeeds.

“But in the young democracies, disregard for the essential elements of democracy is the norm rather than the exception,” he said.

He said there were many ways democracies could be abused, including through changing the boundary of constituencies, shifting of voters and election fraud.

“Then of course the voters can be corrupted with money or gifts,” he said.

However, Mahathir said democracy was still a “great system” but warned that it could slip away.

“If the people do not assert their right it does not take much for a democracy to become a kleptocracy; a government by crooks,” he said.