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DrM: US is a bankrupt country, reject the greenback



Husna Yusop and R. Manirajan

KUALA LUMPUR: Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said countries that depended on trade with the United States and the US dollar had contributed to it becoming a superpower and using its money to build war machines.

He described the US as a "bankrupt country" because of its double trade and budget deficits.

However, he said, due to the dependence of many countries on trade with the US and its currency, "we created a demand for their currency".

"If we reject the US dollar ... they (US) will have no money to invent new weapons," Mahathir said during a question and answer session in the Perdana Global Peace Forum Special Session in the Putra World Trade Centre today (June22, 2006).

However, Mahathir, who is the forum chairman, acknowledged that countries like Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, China and many others depended a lot on the US - the world's largest economy.

"It will hurt us if the US is defeated or its economy faces problems. There is a price for everything, nothing comes free.

"But I would rather pay that price ... than be seeing people get killed and knowing the world would be a much better place," Mahathir said. The theme of the forum was "The Middle East Agenda: Oil, Dollar Hegemony and Islam."

Earlier in his speech, Mahathir said in order to succeed in criminalising war, one must call a spade a spade and win the war against misinformation.