Mahathir: Only people who reject war fit to lead
The Star – 4/6/2006
KUALA LUMPUR: Only leaders who pledged to uphold peace and reject war should head nations through elections or other means, said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.  
Dr Mahathir, who is Perdana Leadership Foundation chairman, called on people who advocate peace to join in the campaign to ensure only people who reject war were elected as leaders in any society.  
“We believe that only anti-war people should lead governments and nations.   
“Today, the mothers of those killed in the Iraq war are campaigning so that war-mongerers; people who advocate war; or those who reject peace and resort to war in order to resolve dispute should not be elected,” he said at a talk organised by the Association of Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga Malaysia at Wisma MCA.  
He reiterated the stand made at the Perdana Global Peace Forum last December that war should be criminalised.  
“Killing people to resolve problems is unwarranted. All killers are terrorists because the people they killed are terrified. Killing, whether done in ordinary situations or during wars, is a crime and it merits punishment.”  
Dr Mahathir said today’s society had not progressed from the primitive age as it still believed in killing people in order to resolve problems.