PRIME minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said his fallout and clash with his former protégé Najib Razak had kept his brain active even in his old age.

The 93-year-old Dr Mahathir said he was forced to keep mentally active by devising ways to unseat Najib, who was prime minister for 10 years before being deposed in the May 9 general election.

“I had a big quarrel with the previous prime minister,” Dr Mahathir said in his keynote address at the Inaugural Conference to Honour The International Day of Older Persons in Kuala Lumpur today.

“So, all the time my brain was actively thinking about ways and means to change the government.”

Dr Mahathir, who is the world’s oldest prime minister, said he was compelled to remain active in politics even after retiring in 2003 as many of his supporters pleaded with him to help save the nation.

“Two weeks after I retired (in 2003) people came to see me. They were not happy with my successor. They asked me, can you do something about it?” Dr Mahathir said, referring to former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

“So, I started doing something. I became very active. Of course when that successor eventually gave up, we had a second man to succeed the first man after me.

“Again, people came to see me and said please do something. I tried to advise but that didn’t work. Then, I decided I can’t have this man as my leader so I resigned (from Umno).

“Then, I did something again. I formed a party to defeat my own party. However, that’s history but not very old history. Just a few months ago we won and took over the government,” he said.

Dr Mahathir then repeated an earlier statement where he claimed that the new age of retirement was now 95.

“I haven’t retired yet, the new age of retirement is 95. So all of us are very young.

“95 I will retire, I promise,” he said.

The Langkawi MP also had some important health advice for the older generation, telling them to remain both mentally and physically active.

“I am not jogging anymore. I get breathless.

“What I can do is I can work. So I continue to work. Not because I like it but because people forced me to.

“When you keep on thinking, using your brain, that means you will not lose your memory, like you often see happening to old people,” the Kedah-born prime minister said.

Dr Mahathir is serving as prime minister for the second time. He had been the nation’s longest serving leader in his first term that lasted 22 years.

He stepped down from office in 2003 but decided to re-enter politics following the massive scandal surrounding 1Malaysia Development Bhd. – October 6, 2018.