Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that he has no desire to return for a third stint as prime minister and that he is more interested in advising people on certain matters.
“If younger I can become the prime minister again, but I am 95 years old now and I can still function, and hope to advise people on what they should do…other than that I feel I shouldn’t be the prime minister for the third time,” he said.
Born on July 10, 1925, Dr Mahathir is the only politician in the country who has held the country’s top executive post twice, and also holds the record for being the world’s oldest prime minister when he was re-elected in May 2018.
He said this when asked by Bernama during a 30-minute meet-up session with the current Miss Earth Malaysia 2020/21 Dr Nisha Thayananthan at his office in Putrajaya yesterday whether his goal of criminalising war will be achieved if he returned to power for the third time.
He said that his dream to do so is yet to be realised, but he is now too preoccupied to continue with his original goal of making wars of aggression a crime against humanity.
“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.
Dr Mahathir said he is preoccupied in many other organisations, including his political party Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang).
“I think war is primitive…you want to settle a problem, you kill a person, how can you do that,” he said.
The former premier who had served twice as prime minister – first as the leader of then-ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) for 22 years and next as chairman of Pakatan Harapan (PH) for 22 months after the 2018 general election – said the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War initiated by him is still there but no one is active.