DR Mahathir Mohamad today revealed that he had wanted to rest after retiring from politics in 2003 but received many requests to return to work.

Speaking in a live Youtube interview hosted by the Creative Cloud Community (CCC), Dr Mahathir said after stepping down as the prime minister in 2003 at the age of 77, he continued living an active lifestyle.

“People came to see me and told me ‘let’s do this and let’s do that’ when I wanted to rest.

“I live an active life and I always tell people to stay active. I am 94 now and I thought I would only reach 75,” he added.

Dr Mahathir was the country’s fourth prime minister from 1981 to 2003 before retiring. He was never away from politics but returned to it actively in 2017 to work with the then opposition Pakatan Harapan.

He led PH to defeat Barisan Nasional in the 2018 general election, and became the prime minister again in May 2018 until he stepped down in February 2020.

He is still aiming to topple the Muhyiddin Yassin-led Perikatan Nasional (PN) government to restore PH to power.

On another matter, when asked how he dealt with online abuses, Dr Mahathir said one should always choose to do good over bad.

“A knife can be used to carve and it can also be used to kill. The knife is not the problem but the people using it are causing the problem.

“I was taught to do good things by my mother and I remember she told me to never take things that are not yours. When you have good values, you can avoid doing bad things,” he explained.

The Langkawi MP also advised young entrepreneurs to learn as much as they can during the Covid-19 pandemic on how to develop new ideas in order to compete with other businesses under the new normal.

“I think young business owners must learn as much as they can during this pandemic. You might not get this opportunity when things go back to normal.

“You need new ideas and new knowledge so don’t just stop, think and be creative. Learn how to transform,” he said during the interview. – June 3, 2020.