Mahathir to focus on writing after election defeat

Malaysia’s nonagenarian former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, one of the world’s longest-serving politicians, said on Wednesday he will focus on writing after he suffered his first electoral defeat in more than half a century. The 97-year-old statesman came fourth in a five-way fight for his long-held constituency on the resort island Langkawi in Saturday’s election. Commenting for the first time since his defeat, Mahathir accepted his loss but did not say whether he would quit politics. For the moment, he said he would write about the country’s history. “Many events that happened in the country have not yet been recorded, including what happened during British rule,” he wrote on his Facebook page. — afp