KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 — Political systems that concentrate power in a single individual including absolute monarchy are detrimental and would put the country at risk to colonisers, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

Citing the country’s pre-independence history when the Malay rulers had been influenced by British, the former prime minister said that Malaysia might not have existed if the populace had not fought for the independence of Malaya.

“If not for the people's will to see that the rulers retract their initial agreement with the British in wanting to form Malayan Union, we might still be under foreign control,” Dr Mahathir said in his keynote address at the Nusantara Youth Leadership Convention here at the National Affairs Academy.

“Absolute power to anyone is dangerous and it wouldn't be a good thing... be it a to dictator or a ruler,” he later said in a press conference.

Dr Mahathir also cautioned the Malays that if they did not stand united and learn from history, the episode would repeat itself.

He did not elaborate, however, on whether he considered Malaysia’s current system of a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy as one that risks focusing power in a single individual or entity.