"I am very ashamed," Malaysia prime minister Mahathir Mohammad said about his country's public toilets.

According to The Star, he was speaking at an event on Aug. 13 commemorating the re-introduction of civic education into school syllabus, following his recent trip to Singapore to celebrate the country's 54th national day.

In a video of the speech published on KiniTV YouTube channel, Mahathir said toilets in Malaysia were usually "not clean" and "smelly".

"That reflects on the values we have," he said.

Civic responsibility

Mahathir also said that he regularly carried out inspections of public toilets.

"We should feel ashamed, but we have the mentality that no one will find out who did it," he said.

"This is because we do not have civic responsibility in our hearts."

Mahathir also used the speech to take aim at litter bugs and vandals.

"Whatever is untouched, we vandalise it," he said once again referencing the lack of civic responsibility among Malaysians.

Malaysia's prime minister also provide the example of Japan and their culture as an aspiration.

He said he admired them, while extolling their high standards of hygiene and sense of responsibility ingrained in the children.

He expressed hope that the re-introduced civic education syllabus would go some way to creating a similar culture in Malaysia.

Top image screenshot from KiniTV's YouTube channel