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Mahathir accuses

US congressmen

of being 'dirtier'

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahthir Mohammad, slamming the US magazine Fortune for generalising Asian leaders as corrupt, has accused US congressmen and Western nations in general of being "dirtier".

"They (the West) have the perception that they are a superior rate that is not involved in corruption. They only see others as dirty, but if they look at themselves in the mirror, they will see that they are dirtier," Mahathir said.

US congressmen received "a lot" from the private sector and the US system of lobby groups also amounted to corruption, the Business Times here quoted him saying over the weekend.

"They are snooty, always looking down their nose thinking other people are inferior. This is what annoys me," Mahathir, a frequent critic of Western morals and values, said in the report published Saturday.

Mahathir aides said Sunday that the premier had been provoked by the recent Fortune magazine report headed "Asia-Corrupt-O-Meter" which placed Malaysia mid-way on a scale in which China was called the most corrupt and Singapore the least corrupt nation.

Rating corruption in 11 Asian nations on a 1-10 scale, Fortune had placed China and Indonesia at the top with 7.31 points, followed by India at seven, the Philippines at 6.59, Thailand with 5.88 and Malaysia with 4.64.

The article had alleged that corruption in such Asian nations was giving American companies a "nightmarish legal dilemma."

Mahathir, who recently vowed to fight corruption in his ruling United Malays National Organisation, challenged Fortune's rating of corruption in North America, Australia and Europe as only 2.12 on the scale.

"The French, British and Italians are also corrupt. But they only consider themselves as superior and clean," Mahathir alleged.-AFP