I am fed up of reading daily, the incessant bombardment of lies about Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, both in the local and foreign media, especially in likening him to Suharto and Ferdinand Marcos.  One does not need to be highly educated to distinguish the false from the true.

What is true about Rd. Mahathir?

* He is a nationalist.

* He created many wealthy Malays to match the achievements made by other races in the country.

In the process, he created an employment and business base for millions of Malays, which in turn has brought thousands of them into the middle-class.

* He helped in industrialising the nation by leaps and bounds.

* As a result of this rapid industrialisation, the country's wealth increased a tremendously, creating a large middle-class of Malays and other races.

* He placed Malaysia on the world map.

* He proved the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other international agencies wrong in their prescriptions to turn around the economies of developing nations and to arrest the depression.  His prescription was right for Malaysia.

* His expertise is now sought by other developing nations.

* He has helped unite Malaysians of all races and religions for the past 18 years, though he was once feared as a Malay ultra.

* He is frank, forthright and sometimes blunt in his views.  This is his style of leadership and management.

* Yet he is human and not a saint and is therefore capable of making mistakes like all of us.  I am sure being an intelligent man, he reflects on his mistakes when these are pointed out by his associates and advisers.

* He is not a Mahatma (Gandhi) to forbid his own siblings from doing business or enriching themselves by legitimate means.  Why should Dr. Mahathir's children suffer discrimination and be deprived of opportunities to run businesses of their own.

RR. Chandran, Petaling Jaya