“The first thing we need to do is make sure the leaders are not corrupt. If the leaders are corrupt, there’s no way we’re going to stop corruption from spreading.
“In any country, there will be corruption to some degree, but the idea is to keep corruption to a minimum. That is done by what we call leadership by example,” he said at a panel discussion at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum here.
Other panellists in the forum, moderated by Fareed Zakaria of CNN, were Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and CEO of Royal DSM Feike Sijbesma.
Mahathir is in New York on a five-day working visit, during which he will attend the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly.
He said Malaysians were confident that the new government had managed to stop the corruption that had characterised the previous administration.
He added that Putrajaya was serious about imposing restrictions on Cabinet members by asking them to declare their personal assets, properties and earnings which would be scrutinised by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. As prime minister, he would do the same, he said.
“If the leader is not corrupt, there will be less corruption in the system. That is what we are doing now, and we are very serious about it.
“We’re doing everything we can to reduce or even eliminate corruption.”
When asked how long he would stay on as prime minister, the 93-year-old said: “I made a promise that I would not stay long as prime minister. Maybe two years, maybe more, maybe less.”
Mahathir, who was prime minister from 1981 to 2003, said he had agreed to a second tenure as PKR president elect Anwar Ibrahim was still in jail at the time.
“I agreed that I would be there for maybe two years, and then the new leader would take over.”
When asked how he kept healthy, Mahathir who is the world’s oldest head of government said: “I keep to a strict diet. I don’t overeat. I do a little exercise and I get six hours of sleep.
“If you live a fairly well-regulated life, you will survive. But if you get some disease which is incurable, there’s nothing you can do,” he added, drawing laughter from the audience.