In a blog post, communications and multimedia minister Salleh said Mahathir’s comments showed he doesn’t realise that the world has changed in the 14 years since he left office and that China has risen greatly since the 1990s.
“China is on the move and no one can stop them. All over the world China is investing, going into partnership, and is buying up assets like never before in history.”
Saying it was futile to resist China’s “great march forward”, Salleh said countries like Malaysia needed to accept this or risk being left behind, as globalisation also means the end of protectionism.
“You cannot expect foreign direct investment or money to flow into your country and yet not be prepared to relinquish control of certain assets.
“This is the reality of the ‘new world’ and Mahathir needs to wake up to this. The other alternative is to adopt a closed-door policy and move backwards and remain poor.”
Yesterday, Salleh said Mahathir didn’t understand the meaning of FDI and sovereignty after Mahathir claimed land sold to foreigners would, in effect, become foreign land.
In a blog post, Salleh said that just because a foreigner owned a piece of land, it didn’t give them sovereignty over their property and that that foreign investment also included the setting up of trading companies, property investments, resorts, clubs and even golf courses.