Q: Do you give advice to PM Najib?

A: No.

Q: Personally?

A: Personally, sometimes I talk to him, like anybody else. Not to give advice.

Q: What about the (economic) crisis? How hard it was for Malaysia?

A: I don't know really because I'm not in the government, but I think that Malaysia will suffer because we are trading nation. We export a lot of things all over the world, and today our markets are poor, they are not able to buy what we export, so our earnings become less.

Q: Of the big projects that you initiated, are there any that you considered failures?

A: Not in terms of projects. What I failed to do is to enable all the different races to participate in the economy on an equal basis. That is where I failed. The Malays are still relatively poorer than the Chinese, and the Indians are not happy with where they are.

Q: I thought you had a policy to help Malays?

A: Yes, but it's not easy. Just because you give somebody an opportunity to do business, it doesn't mean he knows how to do business and make money. Some have done well, while many failed. But it's not only about giving opportunities for business; education also is very important. Today more doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects have become qualified, but are not very successful yet in business.

Q: The violence in the South of Thailand is still going on. What would be your advice to Thailand on how to solve the problem?

A: Well, I wanted to suggest something but Mr Thaksin was very angry with me. I talked about authonomy, but Thailand doesn't want that. But in Indonesia, they gave authonomy to Aceh, and the locals feel that they have a say in their own affairs. Maybe it's the solution, but I just say this, I don't mean to offend your government.

Q: Do you think Thailand's policy is heading the right way? With budgets to lift people out of poverty, develop the area, giving education, jobs?

A: Yes, I think it is the right thing to do, but the people in the South are very poor, they don't have skills, so it will take a long time for them to get the full benefit of the strategies adopted by the government.

Q: But in terms of Thai-Malaysian relations, do you think it's doing well?

A: It's doing well. It doesn't help us to fight each other. We regard this as an internal problem, but if we can be of help, then we would like to be. There isn't one single group, but many groups, so it makes things difficult. One group might agree but the rest may not. I talked on that because Khun Anand invited me to play a role, so I tried, but I did not succed.

Q: What about the relationship with Thailand?

A: Well, I think we have a better relationship with Thailand than Singapore. We keep our internal problems to ourselves and don't interfere, so I think we are good neighbours.

Q: There's always news between Malaysia and Singapore.

A: Well, we have problems that are not resolved. For example, we sell 1,000 gallons of water to them for three cents. They purify the water and sell it for 17 Singapore dollars; it's a lot of money. This was decided a long time ago when the price of everything was very cheap. Today, for three cents, you can't buy anything. So we want to revise this, but they don't. So there are these problems, and what we should do is to sit down and find solutions, but they never agree to anything. They don't agree on revising the price of water, they don't agree to build a bridge. It's still going on, and I leave it to the present government.

Q: Domestic politics in Malaysia is getting very interesting because Anwar Ibrahim is now charged again with sodomy. Is this deja vu to you?

A: Not at all. This is a different case. I'm not prime minister. He was arrested during my time and he commits the same crime. That is not unusual. People don't seem to learn from the past, so they deserve to be treated the same way.

Q: It's not used as a political weapon?

A: That is what foreigners like to say - that it is political. If it is political, then a lot of people would be arrested to give the government a good time, but you don't arrest people unless they do something wrong. You can't prejudge that this is political. Even in my time, it was not political. Of course there were differences of opinion between him and me, but just because of that, I don't have to arrest him and throw him in jail. He was arrested because he did something that broke the law in this country.

Q: But he was your biggest challenger back then?

A: It doesn't matter because I'm not going to be prime minister forever. He might be prime minister, but what can I do, I can't stop him.

Q: What about today? Is he the biggest challenger?

A: I don't know what the government feels about this, but it is not political. It is about a man who has broken the law, and whether he is prime minister, it makes no difference. The law is applied equally to everyone. You break the same law, you are punished accordingly.

Q: The goal is to turn Malaysia into a developed country. Do you think you can see that in your lifetime?

A: The goal is still there. We must increase the income of the people, improve living standards, and education should be enhanced. We must have the sense of a standard of living not too far from developed Western countries. I don't know how long I'm going to live. I'm already 85 years old. The "20 20" vision is ten years away.

Q: You'll be 95.

A: Well, I don't know about tomorrow.

Q: You still look strong and healthy.

A: I have been well, I'm strong, I'm active, but you never know when your time is up.

Q: What's the legacy that you want people to remember you?

A: I'm not worried about a legacy because by that time I'll be dead anyway, so why does it matter.