A jovial Dr Mahathir left industry players in stitches with his spirited jokes throughout the dialogue session. — Picture courtesy of Ampire Events

PUTRAJAYA, July 26 — Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today promised the local film and TV community he would bring forth their concerns, but any decision would be subject to the agreement of the Cabinet.

“I was a dictator. And it made things easier,” he told some 120 members of the industry, which was met with roars of laughter.

“Everything I do now, however, depends on the Cabinet, so I will bring forth these issues like tackling digital piracy and issues of copyright.”

He was speaking at an hour-long dialogue followed by a high-tea session earlier this evening organised by Datuk Seri Paduka Khairuddin Abu Hassan and wife, actress Datin Seri Paduka Umie Aida.

When taking questions and explaining it would take time to address the many issues concerning the industry that were brought up, Dr Mahathir also took a swipe at former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

“It was easy before this too, as the prime minister was also the finance minister and he needed to only talk to himself and approve it on his own.

“It’s not hard for me to agree to many things, as it’s not my money,” he said with a grin. “But all this needs to go through the Cabinet, and we have to listen to everyone.”

Dr Mahathir amused the audience at the Perdana Leadership Foundation by even taking a jibe at the Malaysian Islamic Development Department’s (Jakim),in his reply to film director Datin Paduka Shuhaimi Baba who bemoaned the difficulty faced by producers in securing loans as film and TV productions were deemed not Shariah-compliant.

“Jakim is powerful, even if they say a wheelchair is ‘haram’, we can’t say anything,” Dr Mahathir responded to Shuhaimi who is wheelchair-bound due to an injury.

“So we need to coax Jakim to not make everything ‘haram’.”

Dr Mahathir had before this called for a review of Jakim’s role to ensure it had not strayed from its original objectives.

Due to time constraints, only nine questions were fielded in the hour-long session.

To ensure the points raised were followed up on, Dr Mahathir asked industry players to submit a memorandum on what had been raised in today’s meeting.

“Please make it short and concise as I barely have the time to sift through the documents and letters on my desk that clutter it to the point you can’t see the table,” he said before ending the session.