Updated version Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that he "agreed" with Umno supreme council member Shahrir Abdul Samad that he "might have contributed to the loss" in the recently concluded by-election in Lunas.

However, when pressed further whether the Malays were registering their protest votes by backing the opposition Barisan Alternatif (BA), Mahathir said, "No, I do not think so. I also think using my posters was a good idea. Tell the malaysiakini editor that we have always used PM's pictures even during the time of Tunku Abdul Rahman."

Malaysiakini reported yesterday that Shahrir, an Umno veteran, had argued that one of the reasons for BN's loss was because Mahathir's posters were used instead of those of the government coalition's candidate, S Anthonysamy ([#1]Dr M to blame for Lunas defeat: Umno veteran[/, Nov 30).

"It was good that they used my posters. Even during (the late first prime minister) Tunku Abdul Rahman's time, we used the PM's posters during election campaigns," he said.

On Wednesday, Keadilan's Saifuddin Nasution Ismail won the BN stronghold of Lunas in Kedah in a hotly contested by-election.

Mahathir, who was speaking to the press after a four-hour Umno Supreme Council meeting at PWTC in Kuala Lumpur, added that he acknowledged that there are many weaknesses within Umno and BN which might have attributed to the loss.

He, however, refused to reveal what those weaknesses are.

"If I tell you the weaknesses, they will be played up by some (people)," said Mahathir.

Phantom voters

He also alleged that phantom voters in Lunas could have come from some 100,000 supporters of the opposition front who were campaigning there for the week leading up to polling day.

"The opposition used dirty tactics and brought in a large number of supporters, which they said were about 120,000 people the night of polling day. These were outside people and we do not know if they were in fact phantom voters," he said.

"On the other hand, Barisan Alternatif stopped 12 buses of our supporters and had their identification cards snatched. They even threw stones at the buses and the buses had to be escorted to the police station to protect the passengers from the hooligan ways of the BA supporters."

He said that such actions are against the law and that BN is considering legal action.

"But I am sure when we take legal action, they (the opposition) will use the foreign media to support them," he lamented.

Real issues

Mahathir said BA should have campaigned on real issues.

"Instead, BA raised religious issues. The opposition even came out with a ruling that said that Muslims cannot vote a non-Muslim when all this while they themselves have even voted non-Muslims," he said.

Mahathir also showed a picture of BN candidate Anthonysamy in the priest robe which he alleged the opposition circulated and said that the picture was a superimposed picture using the latest technology.

"Later, they might even put my head and a naked body and say that I went around naked," said Mahathir.

"The opposition preached 'Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa' to the Chinese in the Chinese language, stating that the Chinese language was the soul of the race, but they did not tell the same to the Malays."

Giving his opinion why the Chinese vote swung to the opposition, Mahathir said that BA played up the "extremist" label that he used in his Merdeka speech, specifically hitting at Suqiu, a Chinese lobby group that produced the controversial 17-point election appeal that was initially agreed to in principle by the cabinet before the general elections last November.

"I was not criticising the whole Chinese community - only those who are extremists. Can't I criticise? I criticise everybody. I even criticise the US president.

"In the Al-Maunah case, I criticised them and they were Malays. That does not mean I criticised everybody - only the extremists. Tak boleh tegur langsung! (I cannot criticise at all!)," said Mahathir, who seemed upset over BA's accusations that he labelled Chinese as "extremists".

Educationist extremists

Mahathir said that the government has amended the Education Act, to the extent of taking away the minister's right to convert vernacular schools to national schools, but still the educationist extremists are not satisfied.

"When we brought up the idea of Vision School, the main idea was to educate our children to be able to live in a multi-cultural and multi-racial society. We never stopped the Malays from sending their children to the Chinese schools.

"However, there are the educationist extremists who always bring up these issues, especially during elections - 17 Perkaralah , 9 Perkaralah ," said Mahathir.

Though he did not clarify who he meant, Mahathir was possibly referring to Dong Jiao Zong, the influential Chinese educationist group that was said to have rallied behind the opposition in Lunas and so incurred the prime minister's wrath at their "ingratitude" that he called them a "group of Chinese extremists", as reported in the Star on Monday.

"There is no other country in which the Chinese can live as peacefully as here. In UK and US, they have many Chinese, but they do not have Chinese schools," said Mahathir.

Review election laws

He also said that his letter criticising Tunku Abdul Rahman was circulated but BA did not highlight what former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim did to the first prime minister.

However, Mahathir did not elaborate on what Anwar did.

Expressing his regret that the people of Lunas were taken in by the lies of BA, Mahathir stated that the opposition even accused him for bringing in Jews to the country, in an apparent reference to the criticism of Israel's participation in a cricket tournament in Kuala Lumpur in 1997.

"It is Anwar who did so. He brought (US Secretary of Defence William S) Cohen in, who is a Jew."

Mahathir warned that the Election Act might be reviewed, in line with the suggestion by MIC president S Samy Vellu.

"The opposition should not think that because they did not break the present law, nothing can be done."