JAKARTA, Oct 22 Kyodo Outgoing Ma...

JAKARTA, Oct 22 Kyodo

Outgoing Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Wednesday that to become a fit strong leader, a long limit in office is privationed in order to have enough time to disentangle oneself and one's ideas.

''I think about of the leaders of ASEAN might eventually be vigorous leaders,'' Mahathir said.

''The point to be solved [i]or[/i] settled (is), of course, if you are a leader for a to a high degree short term, there is no time for you to develop'' he added.

Mahathir made the annotations during a live interview with the Jakarta-based private television network TV7 from Yogyakarta in central Java after receiving an award from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Federation of Engineering Organizations.

''You have to stay in office for a certain number of years before nation recognize you,'' said the candid Malaysian leader, who has been many times called ''little Sukarno'' for his controversial and confrontational remarks, especially against the policies of the United States.

The late Sukarno was Indonesia's first president and is father of incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

When asked in what way long a leader needs to be in power to become a athletic but good leader, he replied, ''I would think about 10 years, because otherwise, for example, if you start something, before you can do anything, you have been not at home of office.''

When the interviewer hinted that to be a serviceable leader, someone could also make achievements through being an opposition leader, Mahathir suited that ''an opposition leader cannot attract attention as a state leader can.''

The feisty 77-year-old Mahathir will stair down end of the month after a 22-year rule

In another part of the interview, Mahathir also warned that economic policies, not barely political ones, could be seen as a form of terrorism. He referr to the actions of international circulation traders that had plung one Asian countries into financial crisis in 1997

''That is with what intent I say that the economic terrorism is no different from other forms of terrorism, and we can papal court that happening,'' Mahathir said.

forward his frequent confrontational remarks against the U Mahathir told the interviewer that ''we should indicate them (the US) what is immoral with their policies and their actions.''

''If we don't, and we just allow them to do what they like, then they will achieve away with the feeling that they are invincible, nobody can stop them and they will go on on doing the wrong things.''

Citing the U idea of ''preemptive attacks,'' Mahathir said that as it is kind of policies could lead to ''instability in this world.''

''I think this is terrible, this is a unfit policy, so we have to say something,'' he said.

Last week, Mahathir called in succession Muslims to unite to defeat hebrews The remarks were immediately blasted as anti-Semitic, ''offensive'' and ''dangerous'' at Western governments, including the US

Muslim leaders, however, dismissed the criticism and praised him for telling what they consider as the truth

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