Hossen Sohel: Malaysia must punish corrupt people but the problem has not reached such a stage that the corrupt should be sentenced to life in prison, says Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, reports The Star
“They (corrupt individuals) might be jailed. How long they need to be jailed depends on the extent of the corruption, and I think different levels of corruption need different punishments,” he said at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies in London on Sept 25.
“But we have not reached the stage of having to sentence people for life,” he added.
Dr Mahathir made the remark in response to a question on whether he supported the death penalty for corrupt leaders after he had delivered a lecture on “The Challenge of Good Governance in the Muslim World”.
Those found guilty of corruption by the courts in Malaysia would be sent to jail, he said, adding that in some countries they actually shot corrupt people.
However, this would not solve the problem, he said.
In his lecture, Dr Mahathir said Muslim countries adopting the democratic system needed to spend more time trying to understand the workings of democracy.
“If you don’t understand that in a democracy the vote is powerful, then you cannot have a democratic system,” he said, adding that such Muslim countries were much more comfortable with a monarchy.
In some Muslim countries, the transition to the democratic system was disastrous, he said.
“Every time they try a democratic system, there will be fighting among themselves and the countries can be almost destroyed,” he said.
In a democratic system, he said, people chose the government and supported the government for a period of time.