Fortunately, he was not the President of the United States. It was also lucky that Malaysia was not America. If Malaysia were the military and economic superpower United States and its leader happened to be Mahathir, he could have had launched military strikes against any nation that refuses to “kowtow” to him – sending the world into oblivion.

We’re talking about the man who could not accept criticisms even from fellow Muslim brothers. When a Turkish author, Mustafa Akyol, criticised Mahathir over his remarks against the Jews during a talk in the United Kingdom, the Malaysian prime minister immediately slammed Mr. Mustafa. Mr. Mahathir said he has every right to express his opinion in the name of free speech.

But when his own “chief strategist” Rais Hussin told a forum that the present government was in serious danger of losing the election if polls were to be called, Mahathir went ballistic – threatened that any member of his own party PPBM (Bersatu) found making statements or announcements that could spoil the image of the party would be subjected to disciplinary action.

Mahathir’s hatred towards the Jews is legendary, so much so he made personal attacks when he described them as “hook-nosed”. Perhaps his advisors should advise him that US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are closed buddies. Mr. Trump is someone you don’t want to offend because he couldn’t care less about political correctness.

Despite criticisms from the Muslim world – even with threats of new terror attacks – Trump defiantly and stubbornly announced on December 2017 the United States recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and ordered the relocation of the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, something that past presidents had not dared do.

Mahathir had labelled Israel as a criminal state for terrorising Palestinians. He had condemned the Myanmar people for their treatment of the Rohingya Muslims. He had indirectly slammed China for suppressing, oppressing and repressing the Muslim Uighurs. He had anticipated applauses and cheers from Arab nations and the Muslim world, but he got none.

Clearly, the 94-year-old man missed very much his first stint as the country’s prime minister (from 1981 to 2003) where he was treated as the ultimate Muslim hero for speaking against the West. But today, all his former dictator buddies – Egyptian Hosni Mubarak, Libyan Muammar Gaddafi, Zimbabwean Robert Mugabe, and Indonesian Suharto – had either suffered a terrible death or lost power.