'Nothing personal'

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that his criticism against Datuk Seri Najib Razak was not personal and it did not mean that the prime minister should resign from his post.

The former prime minister said he did not agree with Najib's policies as they did not bring any benefit to the country.

"No, I am not asking him to resign. I just do not agree with his policies," Dr Mahathir told reporters at the Putra World Trade Centre last night.
Dr Mahathir, who had this morning blogged about withdrawing his support for Najib, accused the country's chief administrator of being "soft", with the tendency to keep quiet when faced with problems.
"As you know, he did not do well in the last general election. He did worse than Pak Lah," said Dr Mahathir in reference to Najib's predecessor Tun Dr Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Abdullah took over from Dr Mahathir when the latter stepped down in 2003 but was forced to handover the premiership and Umno presidency to Najib not long after Barisan Nasional lost its two-thirds majority in the 2008 national polls.
"I had expected Najib to do better but he still sticks to his policies," the vocal ex-prime minister told reporters after presenting his keynote address at the launch of Universiti Utara Malaysia's Institute of Excellence for Islamic Jerusalem Studies tonight.
The country's longest serving prime minister also felt that Najib was soft.
"Sometimes, he did not respond, he was quiet... got problem also he did not take any action," he said.
In stressing that his criticisms were "not personal", Dr Mahathir said Najib did a lot of things that did not benefit the country.

He cited a laundry list of grievances against Najib, from festering racial and religious tension to people disrespecting the constitution, to Malaysians getting kidnapped for ransom.

"All kinds of problems, such as this country being flooded with foreigners, things are not taken seriously. If it happens once, I understand but it keeps on occurring," he said.

Asked whether he had approached Najib with his concerns, Dr Mahathir, who governed Malaysia for 22 years from 1981, said he had done so but that his advice was not heeded.

Dr Mahathir had earlier today said he withdrew his support for Najib as his criticism had fallen on deaf ears.

“I have tried to give my views to him directly, which are also the views of many people who have met me," wrote Dr Mahathir yesterday on his popular blog, chedet.cc.

"I have no choice but to withdraw my support. This has not been effective so I have to criticise," he said, adding that Najib was no better than his predecessor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.