now it's a final offensive to capture the capital tripoli up to 8 months of fighting on the outskirts. police in the indian capital have fired tear gas and used batons to break up thousands of protesters against a controversial citizenship law it's a 5th day of on the west across the country which has seen several deaths as the widespread anger against the law which offers help to persecuted minorities from neighboring countries but excludes muslims. there's the top stories there stay with us talk to al-jazeera is up next with malaysia's prime minister mahathir mohamad a more news feel to that thanks very much for watching seemed a bit. and

. you can watch the movie. movements and. talk to muscatine mohammed served as malaysia's prime minister for 20 years from 1901 to 2003 but the 94 year old veteran politician return to politics a few years back to oppose the political force he was once paul talked about his son national coalition which should prove malaysia since its independence from britain in 1057. during mohammad's 1st 10 years malaysia's prime minister the country experienced a period of reputable nice asian economic growth for the country's diverse population millions of muslims hindus buddhists and christians living side by side . his life achievements were recognised for the opening session of doha forum 29000 . during his acceptance speech he did not hold back from expressing his views in

the modern world today's world is confronted we think these concerns over dissent then they'd both be of google economy growth indefeasible writing for a nation own political social and environmental challenges. in southeast asia then kindy decided to work as a group and then debbie and brought that it be talked about haiti also discussed the state of the global economy and its interconnectedness we don't believe in airplane sanctions to force countries. to accept certain a good deal the good and to change governments it is not only the particular country. but all the partners also we will. economy in a we it is

a form of big did fishery addicted to cheap that is worse than that in that can be easy international. before the world leaders attending the ceremony he also talked about his country's foreign policy. he said friendly countries. we want to be friends with everyone and in me of than. one albeit that exception. our population is too small to provide a good market. we need the world those global market. and many other laws a big market when the us ain't here need to play again. later not for the imposition of the union let loose ancient by the us again. but is the malaysian prime minister going to step down in 2020 and who would he endorse to be his successor these are some of the questions malaysia's prime

minister. in this special edition took to go to syria to her for $29000.00. times sammy's aid and senior presenter from al-jazeera international it's my absolute pleasure to be here with you today my pleasure to be here as well with his excellency dr mahathir mohamad the prime minister of malaysia where as we begin an interview thank you very much for talking to our desire 1st of all a pleasure to be here with you. you've accepted now this a chief mint award and i want to delve back into some of the highlights in your career you were nicknamed bump up hemodynamic for those who are not familiar with that means the father of modernization it's in reference of course to the dramatic transformation that took place in your country while you were prime minister i want

to know though how you see yourself do you think malaysia could have made that it you've been in that transformation without you well in order to. develop what the 1st need is for stability. i was a multi-racial nation and normally monthly regime nations are not stable so the 1st job that i had to do was to make sure that all the different races work together for the country then of course that means of course that all the different races are represented in the government and they can speak for their own arrays and also for the nation and because everybody has a fair share in the governance of the country they feel said that their problems will be taken gail and that leads to is to be where development becomes

possible but many countries have tried that approach malaysia has been more successful than some just to give an example malaysia's g.d.p. upon independence was comparable to ghana for example but today it's around 6 times higher surely they have been are the secrets to this success well the secret is that when you please as a leader in that and he you must have some ideas you might have some ideas lean be thrown watching what happens in other countries in the case so we decided that is it a little u.s. we should look east because in the e.c.b. frank countries like japan korea and the like and these seem to have been able to overcome their difficulties and develop their country so look east become similes

in policy and that has contributed much to us or development one of the things your renowned for is a crucial decision you made during the 1997 asian crisis not to follow the i.m.f. prescriptions. and it turned out well for malaysia in the end malaysia transition that crisis quicker than some of the other countries that did follow the international advice i want to know what made you decide to take a bold decision and and break ranks with others well for a year i watched the countries being devalued and and then as very poor we thought of all kinds of solutions but not being. here not being an economy. greed. does not prevent me from this group not prevent me from accepting ridiculous ideas or ideas that are not

common did you ever have any doubts i must have been a difficult decision to make while you was afraid to dream decision that meet the war. but i thought that you would work then where we had to take to reach an we plunged into the sea and fortunately for us. from depreciate the because we read and from then then on was malaysia recovered do you think the i.m.f. still continues to give sometimes the wrong advice to countries where. really agree that what they did was right and i hope that there will not be. conventional as to always recommend the normal thing in the or.

expected thing. how is your time in politics changed you not just as a politician but as a human being. well he said to resign i've been in corrupt government for 22 years thinking their younger people should take over and i went to retire rarely but after some time lots of people came and asked me please do something about what's happening in the country and eventually i had to do something and then he was coming back the head of state once told me that no matter how principled you start out in politics at some point you are going to have to as he put it down so with the devil do you agree with that have have you ever had to make decisions which haven't sat 100 percent comfortably with your conscience well when you are ignorant but the normal

things then you can do to be abnormal things saw in times of course i get frightened with my own decisions where you had something in order to solve any should it seems not being solved through conventional means so you never had to make decisions that you i mean do you have any regrets do you do you feel like this something you would have done differently were there things that i feel because during my time i mean decisions the which i thought would solve the problem by and then they have found that it was not effective. what achievement are you most proud of and what would you consider to be that biggest mistake. well there in our country that the major races but they are not developing equally. in. they.

search for wealth sample and i thought that this is a problem of. of culture of value system so i try to change their belief system of the ethnic group behind but i feel in that effort. looking forward to the k.l. summit the kuala lumpur summit you're the chairman of it what must the k.l. summit achieve in december 2019 in order for it to be a success i have been watching the developments in the muslim world almost all muslim countries are not considered as developed not a single one and then we see a lot of. troubles in many muslim countries we.

fairly fairly years of governance and also they have been fighting each other and there have been people from mostly in countries have run away from their own countries to seek security in other countries so these are major problems and many of them have been expelled from their country around it and thought here in georgia these are the problems we really have to understand why is it happening and if we know why maybe we can find some solution. for solutions of the nature you're talking about though when it comes to uneven development one would have to look deeper into some of the countries you're referring to which according to international statistics and report indicate a level of mismanagement lack of democracy. uneven access to

resources can there really be a renaissance can you even a dress that properly in a summit without tackling some of these issues well in the 1st place we need to understand the problem we need to see the background to the problem do you think the leaders of the muslim world understand that problem do you think the leaders of some of those countries who are attending the calle summit truly understand the problem. with them personally. when i meant them and this in they have the same concern as as many other images and i think it is above them we see down seriously to look at this problem and to find solutions do you think the launch of the kale summit in itself is an indication of the failure of other initiatives like the oh i see. it well there will be grouping of $52.00 countries. when we have too many people

the finally some consensus becomes very difficult but we through only 5 countries is much easier to think you'll be more effective. you've also commented on some of the global trends going on in the world today i wonder if i can get you to talk a little bit more about them specifically about the issue of trade wars which you mentioned do you think the u.s. and china have been too rigid in how they've approached trade issues well 3 wars do not solve anything the only and they can last people any other people not to believe that the war. so i think all conflicts with the nishan should be said through negotiation arbitration or a court of law and that is how. problem or. indeed

the neighbors but are they failing in that regard the u.s. and china are they being too rigid in their stances they're taking right now but there is too much politics involved not the economy sensing if you follow the economy rules i am not in economies. perhaps you can solve the problem in much better way then confrontation and claim to. destroy each other right and you also mentioned multilateralism and the rise of the right are you comfortable with the direction that the current us administration the trumpet ministration is leading the world in with regard to multilateral action. well see i. bed what you do us doing is being now is the right thing. becoming very national nationalists is good but not at the expense of other people we believe that every country should care

itself but that being. needing to be protected or secure all that's not been confronting our this is better if we learn to work together in a multilateral world because wherever a big country does it he defects other countries especially the poor countries so that is not a solution we were going along with it was martin. but now nationalism still they affect many countries and the more right they did then they were left or even . as before you also mention sanctions on iran will you be rallying taking trying to take action to mitigate encounter the us unilateral u.s.

sanctions on iran. well our sees a very small economy by comparison to the u.s. we have it the surplus with the u.s. . obviously we don't like the idea of sanctions so what we can do is just to preach their values of. peaceful resolution to conflicts rather than confrontation sanctions and the like. you. you also mention the issue of retirement and for any leader no matter how great a round they've had in office one of the issues that comes up is when they will leave the political stage of what will happen next one of the questions that's burning right now in the malaysian media as being talked and discussed about a lot is whether 2020 will be the last year for dr mahathir mohamad as prime

minister of malaysia will it be. which probably. 2020 be the year in which you decide to exit the office of prime minister. well we had the vision to become a fully developed country by the year 2020 unfortunately said step down the leadership took a different cause different policies and that caused the the target not to be achieved in 2020 so what we have said before is that we will still be trained by we have moved. a completion in the front 2022 within 20252030 days a new approach to solving our economy problem and this time around we want everybody to benefit and not any particular group only

so if i understand correctly you feel the need the country needs your leadership well beyond 2020. well i have promised that i would step down. resolve some more immediate problem that has been left by the previous government. and we said i will step down and. their leadership do well and can they did there has been a need by the coalition. talking about issues that need to be resolved can you say 2020 will be the year that the sedition law the security offenses act will be repealed some of the tools that were used by previous previous administration to suppress civil liberties of course the ruling coalition your ruling coalition. it campaigned on a platform to scrap some of these but there's been criticism that you haven't moved quick enough will 2020 be the year in which some of these tools will be repressed.

repealed rather. the problems were very be very serious you can only achieve success in our efforts to overcome the problems overnight it takes time we are given a cherry 5 years to accomplish this object object but in the 1st year when there are years now we have so many on the problem for example the huge boring by the previous government should meet as banker but we managed to overcome them because we manage the finances of the country much better than before we are also still very stable as a nation despite the fact that there is this sudden change of government we should name which for the past 60 years normally when they use it when he causes

disruption there would be demonstration industry there would be a demand even be violence but the militia this speech for under previous government the new government when off very smoothly which is something we didn't expect because we had never experienced changes of government so to that extent we have done fairly well i would claim but there are the areas were example we found that corruption was the one that brought down the previous government we have taken steps to the extent that the no one complains about corruption the me complain about delays in making decisions and all that but the lease of course happens when the new government takes over and right your have made i think even your critics will agree that you've made a lot of progress but still specifically there are some issues can you give

a timeline for for scrapping some of those. law as i mentioned and for passing the bill called the independent police complaints and misconduct commission which the opposition is pushing for can you say 2020 s. when you get civil liberties in order there are some laws which need to be. device or amended but some of these laws are there but they're. practically guaranteed by the. constitution of the country if we have to change the laws we need to get that comes to teaching of that and also. allowing us to do need or at least making changes there enable us to change the laws but the change the constitution requires a 2 thirds majority our government has not got the majority we need to depend upon

to all position but position of course is not very forthcoming do you think the leader of the ruling coalition on whatever him is the best person to take over at some point would you endorse him. well i cannot get into the what would be the best person to take you over because i have had bad experience i have name my successes and when they took over to do different things do you have any regrets about i mean you've had a lot say off and on relationship with anwar ibrahim any regrets about how that has transpired over per before because we were. and think this is the bad we're there less that country's needs is more important in there now will you or personal feelings so we decided to forget the past and consent to read on

developing the country that is more important then i would quarrel. dr mahathir mohamad thank you very much for talking to others. i really felt liberated as a journalist was. going to the truth doesn't lie with us what is. the scope of the world of al-jazeera. the best films from across on network of

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a project that's what we diffuse it was one of the so. around the us of a settlement with this and the story of jerusalem through the eyes of its own people segregation occupation discrimination injustice this is apartheid in the 21st century jerusalem a rock and a hard place on al-jazeera just off one of caracas his main highways immediately your family collects as much water as possible from the mountain above. a nationwide blackout left millions without power a regular water supplies. but this water is not part of the health ministry is recommending people treat it with chlorine but with none available other the and then maybe hopes that boiling it 1st will make it safe for her family to drink dr might be a bit says the increased consumption of untreated water in the last 3 weeks is making an already catastrophic situation worse but then i'm going on with all right

i think we don't have the precise numbers yet but we know that the public and private hospitals there's been an acute increase of cases of severe diarrhea that require hospitalization including children under 2 years of age which can be fatal local and international public health experts describe the crisis as a complex humanitarian emergency.