Dr M promotes China model as alternative to democracy

Dr Mahathir: If you find good people to run a country, even dictators can make a country develop and develop very well.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 — Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today called democracy a “failed” ideology and held up China’s model of authoritarianism as an alternative “worth studying”.

He said China’s political model — which he termed the “Beijing Consensus” — showed that a nation could develop well even in the absence of freedom, liberty and equality — ideals fundamental to the rival “Washington Consensus”.

“The Beijing Consensus shows that having a non-democratic country can also give a good life for the people,” Dr Mahathir told delegates at the “Creation of the Global Citizen: Media Liberalisation and the New Political Realities” forum organised by Umno here.

“If you find good people to run a country, even dictators can make a country develop and develop very well.”

He pointed out that China’s “correct” application of the Beijing Consensus had allowed the nation of 1.3 billion “very poor” people to become the second richest country in the world.

The former premier also criticised the very premise of democracy, arguing that no issue could achieve total consensus, leading to an electoral split that will promote poor governance.

“Democracy... has failed in many countries,” he said.

“It is not the perfect thing it is touted to be. You find that some of these democracies really cannot work. People cannot make up their minds.

Dr Mahathir cited hung parliaments in Britain and Australia as proof that countries cannot progress when a majority of its voters cannot make up their minds, saying frequent changes in leadership were not good for a nation.

“We see a lot of democracies where leaders change every two years and the country cannot make any progress at all,” he said.

“Even the countries that have made progress find sometimes that democracies hinder the development of the country, make the country unstable and difficult to develop.”

He added that smaller parties roped into ad hoc coalitions to break hung parliaments in democracies will hold the majority hostage to minority demands that were not good for the country as a whole.