Potragaya, Malaysia – When the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Muhammad, reached a percent earlier this year, he celebrated his birthday by following a lifetime routine: he ate a little, did not work much, and did not give up to seduce comfort.
“The main thing is that I am working all the time. I don’t rest myself,” Mahathir told Al -Jazeera.
Recommended stories
List of 4 elementsThe end of the list
He said: “I always use my mind and physical. Keep your mind and body active, then live for a longer period.”
From an office in his office in the city of Petrajaya, south of the capital, Kuala Lamborior, he spent the anniversary of the centenary like most days: his ideas are filled about the Malaysian economy, the political situation of the country and the global events that are revealed, especially the situation in Gaza.
Sitting with Al -Jazeera to conduct an interview after recovering from a wave of fatigue soon from his birthday, Mahathir expected that the cruelty of Israel against the Palestinian population in Gaza would be engraved in the history of the world.
Mahathir said that the killing of Israel for nearly 66,000 Palestinians in Gaza, and the majority of women and children, would be remembered for generations, perhaps for “centuries.”
“Gaza is terrible. They killed pregnant mothers … children who are just born, young men, boys and girls, men, women, patients and poor … How can this be forgotten?” He asked.
“It will not be forgotten for centuries,” Mahathir said.
a description The war in Gaza as a group extermination This caused the killing of Muslims during the war in Bosnia in the early nineties and Jews by Nazi Germany during World War II, Mahathir said he was confused because the people of Israel, who suffered from genocide, can, in turn, can, in turn, can, He committed genocide.
“I believed that the people who have suffered like this would not want to visit him to other people,” he said. “The victims of genocide should not want” to want to formulate other people. “
However, in the case of Israel, he was wrong.

At the height of his strength in the 1980s and 1990s, Mahathir gained a reputation on the global stage as an explicit voice for the south, and an audio critic of Western imperialism and its contemporary exploitation of developing countries through financial capital flows.
Mahath, a strong and lifelong supporter of the Palestinian cause, has been criticized to make “anti -Semitic” statements as well as his screaming against the West, especially the United States.
However, as he told Al -Jazeera, he was deeply sympathetic to the Jewish people when the horrors of the Nazis became known after the Second World War.
Now the Israelis say, “None of their experience has learned,” now says.
He said: “They want the same thing that happened to them, and they want to do so with the Arabs.”
He added that the only “reasonable” way to address the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people is to implement a two -state solution. But Mahathir said that such a solution – which obtained a big boost when the Palestinian state was recently recognized by Australia, Belgium, Canada, France and the United Kingdom, from other countries – is still very far, and will not live to see it.
He said, “In my life, no. Very short at the time.”
China: “One country in the world”
Naji from Three heart attacks Who came out of an amazing political return in Malaysian public life when he was more than 90 years old, Mahathir was carrying power for a total of 24 years, and he got what was likely to be the title that could not be made as the longest leader in Malaysia.
When he was born on July 10, 1925, in the northern Malaysian state of Keda, the King of England was George V, the grandfather of the late Queen Elizabeth II, and Malaysia was a British colony known as Malaya.
He entered politics in the 1960s and became Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003 before step down, for the first time.
Then he returned to amazing power in 2018, when he led a coalition of opposition parties to overcome the Parisan Nacional Party for a long time to re -elect the Prime Minister at the age of 92, to become the oldest leader in the world as a result.
but Step under a cloud For the last time in 2020 after losing support due to political intrigues from within his political party, Berato.
A doctor through training, even Mahathir critics acknowledged that he had put the economic institutions that transformed the agricultural economy in Malaysia in the 1960s into the modern industrial status today, with the famous dual petroleum direction that crowns the horizon of its prosperous modern capital, Kuala Lumpur.
Despite the lover of the age when Most of the politicians had retracted the limelightWhat is raised in 100 still voice and acute and Acerbic as it has always been.
He also had some amazing memories of light China and expectations about the future of the United States to participate.

Among his precious memories was his impressions of China’s visit in the 1970s, when it was “very poor” and there were a few cars in the streets.
He said that he was the Deputy Prime Minister in Malaysia at the time, the authorities in Beijing launched the red carpet and its typical “red flag” to heat.
“It was a very large Chinese car produced by China itself. They called it red,” said Mahathir.
Soon forward, the Chinese economy has made a very long long way, as well as the prosperous car industry, which gives the cars produced by Western for their money, especially with electric cars.
China exceeds the United States to become “One country in the world” He said that it is inevitable because of its huge local market and the diligent population.
“It will take 10 years to catch up with America. After that, China will overcome America,” Mahathir said.
He said, “China itself is greater than Europe and America. It is a huge market. It is very rich. The Chinese people are very smart at work,” and he tells how, when he was a young man, new Chinese immigrants are witnessing to Malaysia “a very hard work” to win a livelihood. Within a generation or two, these families managed to improve their lives, give their children well, and some of their grandchildren have become very rich.
“America will not be able to compete with the rest of the world.”
On contemporary China with the United States under the presidency of Donald Trump, Mahathir said that Trump’s tariff war was “very harmful”, and that his plans to reproduce to the United States would increase costs and pave the way for a further rise in China.
(Trump) companies want to transfer their factories to America. Wages are very high there. The work position there will be completely different from Chinese workers who can stay for hours and do work. “
He added: “American workers cannot do this. Anything that is produced in America in the future, if they move the factories there, will be costly.”
“America will not be able to compete with the rest of the world.”
More importantly, Trump does not have enough time to follow up on his promised economic vision, as it will take at least three to eight years to transfer manufacturing facilities to the United States.
“Trump will not be president after three years,” he added.
Although he is 100 years old, Mahathir walks without help, exercises daily, goes to work every day and receives visitors.
He uses social media and travels outside Malaysia whenever he receives invitations to be a guest speaker.
Mahathir said the key to life is actually and mentally, not excessive food.
“Do not eat much,” he said to Al -Jazeera.
“It was the best advice for my mother,” when he tastes cute food, stop eating. “

https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2020-03-13T115611Z_506304881_RC2ZIF97MQCW_RTRMADP_3_MALAYSIA-POLITICS-MAHATHIR-1718156886_ba71fd-1718157978.jpg?resize=1200%2C630&quality=80
Source link