KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has said that Malaysia is in dire need of leadership that places the country above self-interest, as he pilloried the subsequent prime ministers after him over the problems faced by the nation today.

Dr Mahathir, the country's longest serving prime minister, said in an interview with The Diplomat magazine that his opinion on what makes a good leader has changed over the years, especially after observing the way his two successors — Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Datuk Seri Najib Razak — have run the country.

"I have always thought that leadership would be concerned with getting on with the tasks of a leader. But I now find that being a leader alone is not enough," he said in the interview published yesterday.

"The kind of leadership we have should be one that has the capacity to focus not on himself, but on what is good for the country. Now I find that not anybody can be a leader. You need somebody that is dedicated to the cause of doing something for the country," Dr Mahathir added.

Dr Mahathir, who lead the country for 22 years before retiring in October 2003, told the magazine based in Tokyo that he saw to it that racial strife was effectively kept in check as he was aware of the potential for “racial fights” due to significant differences in culture, language and economic achievements among the different races.

He claimed that “others did not handle this problem well”, in a dig seemingly at the current prime minister, saying that assuming a liberal position merely opened the floodgates for extremists to use the differences between races to sow disunity.

In the early days of Najib’s administration, the prime minister took a more open approach under his Transformation Plan which initially sought to moderate the level of affirmative action afforded to the majority Malays and Bumiputera over more than 20 years.

Najib, however, ended up introducing a new raft of policies after sustained pressure from Malay and Bumiputera groups angered over what they claimed was a diminishing of their special rights.

“If you are liberal, the extremists take advantage. The extremists in each race took advantage of the liberalism to bring up racial issues. Because now you can discuss and say what you like because of the liberal attitude, freedom of speech,” Dr Mahathir said.

“Therefore, they made people conscious of their differences, and they began to fall behind these extreme people. So now racial tension has come up again.”

The 90-year-old repeated his position that things will only get better in Malaysia once Najib is out of the picture, saying that former deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin could be a worthy candidate to take over.

He said he remains pessimistic of Malaysia’s outlook under Najib’s leadership, but puts his hopes on Malaysians to keep the country going.

“The people are very good people. Malaysians are very tolerant. In other countries, with the kind of divisions in terms of race and culture and economic well-being, there would be confrontations, there would be violence.

“But here, they may have tensions between races, but it doesn’t escalate to the point of violence,” Dr Mahathir was quoted saying.