The Pakatan Harapan government will be concentrating on the restoring the country in two key areas namely restoring damage in the administrative machinery and the country's financial position which is beleaguered by huge debts, says Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

In a dialogue session with almost 200 Malaysians in the United Kingdom yesterday, Mahathir said the damage to the country's finance and administrative machinery by the previous ruling party could have destroyed Malaysia, had the same party won in the 14th general election.

"(Malaysia) would have been a land colonised by others, we would have lost power in our own country. Thus, the people gave support to PH to topple the Barisan Nasional (BN) government as it did not focus on the country's well-being, the nation's development nor the problems of the people (who were) saddled by the (high) costs of living."

In the meeting held on his first leg visit to the United Kingdom, Mahathir said the country's administration was also badly damaged as corruption had permeated from the highest to the lowest level.

He said the administrative machinery had also sided with the then ruling party and was even campaigning directly and openly to assist BN even though it should have been neutral.

"Their loyalty went not only to the administrators but also to the ruling party,” he said. He added that it was not according to the desire of the country's constitution where the ruling machinery such as police and army should adhere to orders of the current government but not to meet the instruction of the party in power.

On restoring the financial position of the country, Mahathir said this needed to be carried out even though it may result in the government having to sell assets to obtain funds to pay its debts.

According to him, the previous government owed about RM1 trillion and the debts have to be paid, if not the country may go bankrupt, leading to further financial malaise.

“We have also lost the borrowed money, we do not know where has it gone to. So, we do not have the money to settle the debts,” he said.

Dr Mahathir said the budget is usually in deficit as revenue was not sufficient to settle the debts,” he said.

He said as such there are insufficient funds to finance government expenditure for administration as well as development, including scholarships for students.

"Much more needs to be improved, if given time, we (the government) will overcome the problems,” he said.

At the dialogue session, which also touched on scholarships, Mahathir hoped scholarship holders would finish their studies faster like the second prime minister of the country, Abdul Razak Hussein, who completed his studies in two years compared to the usual duration of three years.

“If we can reduce the time, we could then go home and serve,” he said to the applause by the audience.

On the topic of the national car, which was also raised at the meeting, Mahathir said that the development of the national car was to give the country opportunities to be involved in engineering.

He said building a car which needs 4,000 parts is not easy and engineering graduate would be unable to perform this assembly if he did not practise this aspect of engineering.

Through the manufacturing of cars, he said the country would be able to master engineering, which would bring about development in manufacturing as well as various engineering skills and knowledge.

"It is not just about the car but the engineering possibilities which … can lead to the stimulation of the other areas of economic function," he said.

Mahathir also quashed suggestion that Proton was a failure. He said when it was once under good management, the national carmaker had been able to accumulate RM4 billion in reserves, and it had been able to build a plant in Tanjung Malim without asking for government assistance or borrowing from banks.

He said Proton had been a success until the country decided to allow foreign cars to come into Malaysia unrestricted. However, Malaysia had been unable to sell its car abroad as conditions were imposed on Malaysian cars.

"It's all about importing their cars, not exporting our cars. And of course, if you don't export your cars, you don't earn foreign exchange. If you keep buying foreign cars, then you will lose a lot of money every year," he said.

On the proposed third national car, Mahathir said the government would have to ask the private sector to do it, as the government did not have the money to fund the project. He said the auto industry had potential to create jobs for people and lots of revenue for small businesses that produced car parts.

The meeting was organised by the United Kingdom Bunga Raya Club which was set up in 2016 to support the aspirations of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu).

Apart from club members, other students in the United Kingdom were also present at the dialogue. Mahathir also officiated the club at the event.

– Bernama