KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad pressed on Saturday for democratic reforms in the United Nations (UN) so that the world would not always live in fear of war.

Mr Mahathir, a moderate Muslim leader who opposed the US-led Iraq invasion, said the “risk of being invaded and occupied is real” because no one dared to criticize powerful countries.

He said it was unfortunate that countries had to invest heavily in defence because “warlike predators” remained in the world.

“Peace is possible if we make exceptions for no one in terms of submission to the only international authority that we have, the United Nations,” he said when opening a two-day peace conference here.

“It is presently not a democratic organization, prevented from being so by the very people who preach democracy, but it is still the only international authority that we have.

“We have to make it work. And it can work if powerful countries restore its credibility by respecting it and the decisions made by it.”

Southeast Asia’s longest-serving leader took a swipe at rich countries, saying they developed “state-of-the-art murder weapons” and there was therefore “an itch to test these weapons in real war conditions”.

“And so little wars are encouraged so these weapons can be tested. Off and on, a fairly major war would be launched deliberately for no very good reason,” he said, without making any reference.

“The weapons are gleefully used in these real life tests and their effectiveness are evaluated so that they can be improved and made even more lethal.”

Mahathir Mohamad renewed a call for the rich to be taxed as part of “affirmative action” to narrow wealth gap between countries and to curb terrorism.

“The world needs affirmative action between countries so that the disparities between rich and poor countries worldwide are reduced and tension minimised,” he said.

“Only when wealth is fairly and evenly distributed in the globalized world community, will we be free from the tensions, the bitterness and the anger which make the deprived resort to violence and terrorism.”

In the final analysis, he warned, “unless the powerful reject war as an instrument of national policy, peace would be impossible”.

South African deputy president Jacob Zuma and former Bosnian president Hasan Muratovic backed Mahathir’s call for UN reforms.

Mr Zuma told some 200 delegates that the Iraq invasion had exposed deficiencies in the world body, but it remained the “highest political arbitrator” and must be reformed with all members made to submit to its decisions.—AFP