KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 ― The contradictions in what Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad says about billionaire George Soros between then and now, are so glaring to the point of embarrassment, says Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak.
He said the former prime minister had blamed Soros when Malaysia’s economy faced a crisis previously but today, was saying the exact opposite of what he used to say.
He said Dr Mahathir’s latest comment on Soros must be the lowest level he had stooped to, over the last two years when he started attacking Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
In his latest blog posting Salleh noted that when Malaysia’s economy faced a crisis, Dr Mahathir refused to accept responsibility and admit he was to blame for it.
Instead, the former prime minister blamed it on Soros.
He said Dr Mahathir had even uttered anti-Semitic statements which in any other country would have seen him arrested and jailed, or even forced to resign from office.
“He even had the gall to refer to Jews as people with crooked noses. Dr Mahathir was bitterly opposed to street demonstrations and many opposition people were arrested and charged or detained without trial for organising and participating in demonstrations when he was prime minister,” noted Salleh.
The minister said Dr Mahathir condemned street demonstrations as a western conspiracy to oust a democratically-elected government.
“Today, Soros is a good man for financing groups that are out to topple the government while demonstrations are a good and legitimate way to change governments.
“Does Dr Mahathir remember what he used to say, or does he think we have forgotten? Politics is one thing but ‘maruah’ (dignity) must also be maintained in the game of politics because if we lose our ‘maruah’, we have nothing left,” he said.
Recently, DC Leak had alleged that the Open Society Foundations (OSF) that belonged to Soros had given funds to a number of local organisations, including Bersih, C4 Malaysia, Pusat Kesedaran Komuniti (Empower), Islamic Renaissance Front, Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research, Penang Institute, Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram), Citizen Journalists Malaysia (Sabah) and the Committee For Free Elections (Comfrel).
It was alleged that OSF was also attempting to influence the country’s next election in 2018 via programmes such as voter mobilisation drives. ― Bernama
