(Bernama) - Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today questioned the clamour by some quarters here to push for a revolution to topple the government when the latter was already giving a lot of priority to the people’s interests.

“Is our government autocratic? Is it not giving attention to the people, not developing and advancing the country?” he asked.

Taking questions at a forum entitled, “Discussions with a statesman — The commitment of graduates will be a catalyst for national progress” at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) here, Dr Mahathir said Malaysia had a democratic system that was much better than many countries affected by the “Arab Spring”.

He said that in certain countries that were not so democratic and where their leaders indulged in self-interest, there was widespread suffering because those governments did not prioritise the interests of their people.

“The people continued to suffer, the percentage of poverty went up, in fact, there were cases of university graduates who were unemployed, and these were the factors that led to the uprisings,” he said.

Dr Mahathir said the “Arab Spring” exposed undemocratic and autocratic regimes which forced the people to topple their governments.

In comparison, he said, Malaysia was quite different and as such, there was no necessity “for us to act outside of the law to topple the government”. Therefore, the people should evaluate the situation rationally.

Meanwhile, when asked to comment on the leadership tussle at Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) in Selangor, Dr Mahathir said that it would affect Selangor PKR but Barisan Nasional (BN) should not be exhilarated over the situation.

“The turbulence taking place will affect PKR, but BN needs to continue its effort to win back Selangor in the coming general election. They (BN) must work hard as they cannot just expect to win against weak opponents,” he added.