We need an opposition to remind us if we are making mistakes. When you are not opposed you think everything you do is right.

I thought that the United Nations is a creature of the five super-powers who were given veto powers. I don't like veto powers at all.

The Commonwealth is a mixture of developing and developed world, in which the developed countries were very influential and their policies hold sway most of the time.

If you know each other well, you want to do business with people you know well. You don't do business with strangers.

Actually, I invited many Commonwealth leaders to come to Malaysia. They did not accept my invitation. By that, I mean, they didn't say they didn't accept, but they just didn't come here.

Most developing countries would know Malaysia quite well. Why? It is because we believe in contacts. We offer them some help for training, for example. We call it 'technical cooperation'.

Malaysians, during the colonial period, were not given the top positions: we were always subordinate. Fortunately for us, the people who took over were mainly civil servants: people who were serving the Government.