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The former prime minister asserted that cries of cronyism would abound if professional lobbyists and lobby groups were allowed to openly influence lawmakers here.

But he noted that the thinly-veiled US system in which political clout was auctioned off to the highest bidder has not drawn complaints from the trenchant local critics of Malaysias democracy.

Malaysians would never think of condemning this system. For Malaysians, especially the liberal NGOs, and the opposition, everything and anything that is done by the US and the West are regarded as democratic, he wrote in a blog post yesterday.

They would never condemn the US for this blatant fee-based influence-pedalling.

In the same blog post, Dr Mahathir also took aim at his regular Jewish targets, using the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to demonstrate the corruption endemic in the lobbying system and the purported influence over the countrys politics.

It can reach the President, all members of the American Government and all Congressmen and Senators as well as their staff at any time.

[It] is so powerful that candidates for President and other offices in the US Government have to literally pledge support for Israel to his lobby or they would lose in elections, he added.

Malaysia has, in the recent post-Mahathir years, seen increasing civil disobedience by its citizens in their demand for greater democracy and personal liberties, including three large-scale street rallies in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur.

Since 2008, opposition parties and advocates of democracy have grown more vocal in their criticism of Malaysias electoral system, which they allege was engineered to keep the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) in power.

Dr Mahathir was prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003, and ruled the country with according to his fiercest critics an iron fist under the guise of a democracy.

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Dr M accuses opposition, NGOs of hypocrisy over US lobbying