97-Year-Old Ex-Prime Minister Declares He Is Running for Office Again

Once the world’s oldest serving state leader, Malaysia’s 97-year-old former prime minister has announced his intention to extend his role in politics—in theory into his 100s.

This was declared on Tuesday by Mahathir Mohamad, as he outlined his plan to defend his parliamentary seat for Malaysia’s upcoming general election, set to take place in the coming weeks. 

Since he resigned as prime minister in 2020, Mahathir has served as a Member of Parliament for the Langkawi constituency in northwestern Malaysia. If he successfully defends his seat this election, the elderly politician will be 102 years old by the time his five-year term ends. The elderly statesman has had his fair share of health scares over the decades, having suffered heart attacks and undergone coronary bypass operations. Most recently, he was discharged from hospital last month after being admitted for COVID-19.

On Monday, Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob dissolved parliament, calling for an early election amid pressure from a rival faction within his United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the dominant party of Malaysia’s ruling coalition government. With polls required to be held within 60 days of the dissolution, the snap election was met with public criticism and reluctance from the King of Malaysia as the country braces for monsoon season and potential floods. Heavy rain will likely result in fewer people heading to the polls, which many believe to be advantageous for UMNO, who won at recent state polls amid low voter turnout. 

As political parties scramble to prepare for the country’s 15th general election, Mahathir will attempt to reassert his longstanding dominance in national politics, despite his age. Kevin Zhang, a senior research officer of Malaysia Studies at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, told VICE World News that Mahathir's longevity is no great surprise in the Malaysian context, pointing to other prominent leaders who have dominated the country's politics since the 1980s.

“While Mahathir running for office may seem surprising for non-Malaysians, his decision is a microcosm that Malaysian politics is personality- and elite-driven, by politicians who are in their old age,” he said. “Mahathir’s party Pejuang may stand to gain some parliament seats in Kedah, his home state, [where] he retains much popularity.”

When he announced his retirement in 2003 after 22 years in office, Mahathir was already the country’s longest-serving prime minister. But he came marching back onto the political scene in 2018, leading the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition to win that year’s general election, toppling the UMNO-fronted Barisan Nasional coalition. The win also made him the world’s then-oldest prime minister at 92.

But Mahathir’s renewed leadership was short-lived, as the PH government collapsed in 2020 amid infighting, followed by his sudden resignation. Later that year he formed a new party, Pejuang, which will be going up against UMNO in this coming election, contesting at least 120 seats. 

UMNO lost the 2018 election as Mahathir seized upon the growing anger directed towards the party’s leader, then-prime minister Najib Razak, for his involvement in one of the world’s largest financial and political scandals. Najib is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence for embezzling from Malaysia’s 1MDB public investment fund, from which $4.5 billion was stolen in a far-reaching theft that implicated Goldman Sachs and even Hollywood producers. Meanwhile, current UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is facing 47 graft charges of his own in an unrelated case.

On Tuesday, Mahathir once again cautioned the electorate that UMNO’s priority, if reelected, would be to free their leaders from corruption charges. 

“Should they be able to win and form the government, that is the first objective, not about the welfare of the people," he said. “We are willing to work together [with other parties in a coalition] if they want to save this country from UMNO’s rule.”

But Mahathir’s promises to tackle a corrupt elite may not be enough to guarantee widespread popularity again at the upcoming polls. Zhang, the researcher, says that Mahathir is “largely seen as a spent force” among the Malaysian public after he was “outmaneuvered” and forced to resign by fellow party members in 2020.

“Mahathir continues the narrative that UMNO is corrupt and presenting himself as a change, but this narrative is losing [credibility] since he was seen as failing to deliver most of the promised reforms when he served as prime minister between 2018 and 2020,” said Zhang.

“In addition, the rising cost of living and economic hardship means that economic and livelihood concerns are likely to gain salience among the electorate in the upcoming general election, with less interest in the anti-corruption narrative.”

As to whether the world will be seeing its oldest prime minister yet, Mahathir has remained tight-lipped about his plans on running for the premiership for the third time. In 2020, after his resignation, Mahathir said that he would not be contesting in the next general election if it was held in 2023 due to his age. But last month, he announced that he would accept the role of prime minister if people insisted.

“If the insistence were to be incessant, I would find it hard to only think about myself,” he said. 

On Tuesday, Mahathir said that his Pejuang party had not yet picked its candidate for prime minister for the upcoming election.

“We didn’t decide on who will be prime minister because the candidate for that is relevant only if we win,” he said. “If we lose, it's irrelevant.”

Follow Koh Ewe on Twitter and Instagram.