Mahathir wants tax on rich states to replace foreign aid.

BOAO, Hainan, China (JP): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, continuing his anti-globalization rhetoric, broached his most bold proposal to date on Tuesday, with a call for the imposition of a tax on rich countries to replace foreign aid or foreign loans to poor countries.

"Foreign aid has failed. So have foreign loans," Mahathir said in a keynote address at the inauguration of the Boao Forum for Asia at a beach resort here overlooking the South China Sea.

He said that, while Malaysia, China, Japan and Korea have managed to reduce or eliminate absolute poverty, many countries in the world have become even more impoverished.

He proposed that …