Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad cannot figure out if he had made any bad decisions during his 22 years in office.

On whether the implementation of mega-projects fell into this category, he said he has yet to find the right answer for that.

Mahathir said he had been accused of spending government money by building and approving mega projects such as the Twin Towers, Putrajaya and Penang Bridge.

He was replying to a question from the floor after delivering a lecture titled 'Leadership in Crisis Management' at the inaugural 'Uniten Tun Dr Mahathir Lecture Series' organised by Universiti Tenaga Nasional (Uniten) today.

Asked for an example of a bad decision he thought he made during his tenure, Mahathir in jest said: "They say some of my decisions were bad, but I try to figure out which of my decisions are bad."

"The tendency is that if you must speak of yourself, surely you must come out with an answer that they all are good," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Money and jobs

In a cynical tone, Mahathir said if there was no commuter train, then the people did not have to travel and if there was no North-South Highway, the people did not have to go back for Hari Raya and there would be less people killed in road accidents.

On a serious note, he said mega projects spinned off money and jobs in the country and the government would be able to get back the money through taxes.

"The revenue of the government has been increasing due to the economic activities. More economic activities, means more revenue for the government.

"Even if the government spends the money, it will come back to the government by way of taxes," he added.

Mahathir said he made the decision to give bonus to government staff because when they spend the money, it would eventually go back to the government in the form of taxes.