I am too old to be PM again, says Dr Mahathir

PUTRAJAYA: Dr Mahathir Mohamad has announced that he does not want to be prime minister again as he is too old.

The 95-year-old stressed that he had no desire to return for a third stint as prime minister and that he was more interested in advising people on certain matters.

“If I were younger, I could become prime minister again, but I am 95 now and I can still function and hope to advise people on what they should do … I feel I shouldn’t be the prime minister for the third time,” he told Bernama during a 30-minute meet-up session with the current Miss Earth Malaysia 2020/21 Dr Nisha Thayananthan at his office in Putrajaya today.

Mahathir has served as prime minister twice – first as the leader of then-ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) for 22 years and then as chairman of Pakatan Harapan (PH) for 22 months after the 2018 general election.

Born on July 10, 1925, Mahathir is the only politician in the country who has held the country’s top post twice and also holds the record as the world’s oldest prime minister when he was re-elected in May 2018.

On another matter, Mahathir said he had a dream to criminalise war – but it remains a dream he can’t even chase because he is now too preoccupied with other things like politics.

“When I was the prime minister for the second time, I worked 18 hours a day, even now I have too many things on my head, as a leader in a new party,” said Mahathir whose goal is to make wars of aggression a crime against humanity.

“I think war is primitive … you want to settle a problem, you kill a person, how can you do that,” he said, adding that the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War that he initiated was still around but no one was active.

Mahathir said he could not continue with the goal as he himself is preoccupied in many other organisations, including his Parti Pejuang Tanah Air.

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2021/04/14/i-am-too-old-to-be-pm-again-says-dr-mahathir/