Dr Mahathir still hopeful war will be criminalised

By V.Sankara Subramaniam

PUTRAJAYA, April 14 -- For Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, his dream to criminalise war 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.  

"I think war is primitive...you want to settle a problem, you kill a person, how can you do that," 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 on Tuesday. 

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.

Dr Mahathir too could not continue with the goal as he himself is pre-occupied in many other organisations, including his political party Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang).  

Asked whether if the goal will be achieved if he returned to power for the third time, the nonagenarian stressed that he has no desire to return for a third stint as prime minister and that he is more interested to advice 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 as the world's oldest prime minister when he was re-elected in May 2018. 

-- BERNAMA