For smaller countries like South East asean countries, one of the purpose of buying a weapon is for them to have some defensive threats against their neighbors. Mamakdei don't like buying weapon if it can't be a threat against our neighbors which is a legit point imo.

I don't think today generation care much about our neighbors threat because we share the same democratic values. Mahathir however live long enough to survive world war 2 period. His old mindset might be different. Not too long ago Indonesia tried ganyang Malaysia. He may be wary to our neighbors a lot more than us younger people