Mahathir sworn in as world’s oldest leader

NINETY-TWO-YEAR-OLD Mahathir Mohamad was yesterday sworn in as the world’s oldest elected leader after a stunning election win that swept Malaysia’s establishment that has ruled the Southeast Asian nation for six decades since independence from Britain.

“There is an urgency here, we need to form the government now, today,” Mahathir told an earlier news conference, where he insisted he would be sworn in as prime minister later in the day.

Malaysia’s constitutional monarch granted Mahathir an audience at 5pm, according to a leader from his Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope).

Mahathir ruled Malaysia with an iron fist from 1981 to 2003 and now, his alliance of four parties trounced the Barisan Nasional coalition of Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was once Mahathir’s protege but became his most bitter rival.

Earlier in the day, Najib appeared to raise doubts that Mahathir would immediately take office because no single party had won a simple majority of seats in the 222-member parliament, and it would be up to the monarch to decide.

Official results showed that Mahathir’s coalition won 113 seats, one more than the number required to rule. But it has not been formally registered as an alliance.

In jubilant mood and cracking jokes, Mahathir dismissed any doubts he would be prime minister. “I got up late, lots of people got up late,” he replied when asked why there was a delay in swearing him in. He said he had been assured of support from a raft of parties that would give his government 135 lawmakers.

Najib’s BN coalition won 79 seats, a collapse from the 133 it won in 2013, which was itself the coalition’s worst poll performance ever at the time.

Mahathir joined hands with jailed leader Anwar Ibrahim, his one-time deputy he famously fell out with in 1998, and together their alliance exploited public disenchantment over the cost of living and a multi-billion-dollar scandal that has dogged Najib since 2015.

Mahathir said that one of his first actions would be to seek a royal pardon for Anwar. Before the poll he had promised to step aside once Anwar was free and let him become prime minister.

His wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, was sitting next to Mahathir at the news conference. Under a deal with Mahathir, she is to be deputy prime minister.

Anwar was imprisoned, first by Mahathir on charges of corruption and sodomy. He was released in 2004 but jailed again by Najib in 2015.

Mahathir and Najib were once allies but they clashed over a scandal around 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state fund from which billions of dollars were allegedly siphoned off.

The 1MDB affair is being investigated by at least six countries, although Najib has denied any wrongdoing and has been cleared by Malaysia’s attorney-general.