VOTERS in the parliamentary seat of Langkawi will soon have to ponder the question of how old is too old to be elected as the people’s representative. This is after former two-time prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the incumbent Member of Parliament for Langkawi, announced on Tuesday (October 11) that he will defend the seat.

At 97, Dr Mahathir is a year older than Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, who died on September 8 after reigning for 70 years.

Other than the late Queen Elizabeth II, the other nonagenarians, a person who is between 90 and 99 years old, who held public office were Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, who was ousted from office at age 93 and Beji Caid Essebsi, Tunisia’s first democratically elected leader, who came to power in the wake of the Arab Spring revolution. Essebsi served as the 4th president of Tunisia from December 31, 2014 until his death on July 25, 2019, aged 92. He was the oldest-serving elected leader before Dr Mahathir was appointed the prime minister for a second time in 2018.

Essebsi had said he would not run for a second term in presidential elections later that year, saying the country needed someone younger. This despite his party’s calls in June of that year, a month before his death, for him to stand again.

Unlike Essebsi, Dr Mahathir does not seem to reference that the country needs someone younger.

Hafiz Hassan reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.