Kuala Lumpur - The Malaysian Prime Minister, Mr Mahathir Mohamad, yesterday took an opposition leader to task for turning to the "white man" - the Australian Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer - to solve "brown man's" problems.
"Running away to a white man to solve a brown man's problem is something that we did ages ago and we have discarded that idea already," he told a press conference. He was answering a question about the recent visit to Mr Downer by Mr Fadzil Noor, president of the Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS).
He said he was not concerned about the meeting, which has been criticised by members of his government.
But he commented: "Why don't they attend to their Aborigines? Why don't they attend to their problems?"