NEW YORK: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s scheduled appearance at Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum on Wednesday attracted controversy days before the prime minister even landed on US soil.
Pro-Israeli groups had petitioned for the university not to allow Dr Mahathir to speak on campus, having written to the university administration.
The New York Post published an editorial titled “Columbia welcomes hate speech as long as its anti-Semitic”.Speaking on “Rule of Law and Multilateralism”, the dialogue session had stayed on topic for the most part, until a student identifying herself as a member of a campus pro-Israeli group asked Dr Mahathir to clarify his stand on the Holocaust.
“I am exercising my right to free speech. Why is it that I can’t say something against the Jews when a lot of people say nasty things about me, about Malaysia, and I didn’t protest, I didn’t demonstrate,” he replied.Dr Mahathir said if one believes in free speech, this includes willing to listen to views which are not in our favour.
“Free speech is about free speech. When you say ‘No. You cannot say this. You cannot be anti-Semitic’, then there is no more free speech,” he added.Dr Mahathir recounted how a UK journalist was jailed for disputing the number of deaths during the Holocaust.Similar sentences were handed down on Holocaust deniers in France and Canada.
“Well I have not disputed them, but I have (asked) who determined these numbers? If it is somebody who is in favour you get one figure, and somebody who is against will give another figure.
“So I accept that there was a Holocaust, that there were many Jews killed, and in fact at one time I was very sympathetic towards them during the war, when you were not yet around but I was around at that time,” he added.
