Dr Mahathir Raps Warmongers

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 (Bernama) -- Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad lambasted the purveyors of war in a speech laced with heavy sarcasm simply titled "War" delivered at an international conference here Friday. "War is good for business. Killing people with weapons is good for business. So reject peace. Reject negotiations. Reject arbitration. Reject courts of law. Go to war. Kill, kill, kill. That's the way to solve conflicts between nations," he said sarcastically. Besides killing people, war could also bankrupt countries, he noted. "But wars cannot be abolished or made into a crime against humanity. It's too profitable and it is what gives power to the powerful countries," Dr Mahathir said at the conference on Arab uprising organised by Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF). Dr Mahathir, who is PGPF president, said these mass killers now called their war machines their "defence forces" but it was obvious that they were not used solely for defence. "They are equipped to attack, invade, shock and awe their victims," said Dr Mahathir, adding that their governments and industries spent huge sums in the invention of new weapons. "Even children's toys give ideas for better killing machines. Remote-controlled toy planes for children lead to UAV -- Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. First used for aerial photography, they're now fitted with guns, missiles and bombs," he said. He said gases, germs and rays of all kind were studied and invariably their potential for killing people was identified and developed. "All these research, development, tests and production cost a lot of money, running into billions each year. But for these killing machines any amount of money is worth it," he said. Dr Mahathir said the irony was that the same people who indulged in mass killings were the ones who were critical of Malaysia's capital punishment reserved for those trafficking drugs as well as murderers. -- BERNAMA