“They used to call me names. Things like Mahafiraun,” Mahathir said in an interview with Malay daily Sinar Harian today, referring to a name given to him at the height of the political crisis in the 1990s.

“It’s a small thing. I have no interest in vengeance,” he said.

Mahathir defended his past record, saying he was tolerant compared to the Najib Razak government, and as always he was prepared to face the media.

“It is an opportunity for me to answer the people.”

In the interview, Mahathir also made reference to the controversy surrounding the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi.

“It is horrible what happened,” he said, referring to Khashoggi who vanished after entering the Saudi consulate in Turkey early this month. The journalist is widely believed to have been tortured and killed by Saudi agents.

“Cannot accept,” said Mahathir. “We also have those we don’t like. We don’t kill them. In the past, there were people who didn’t like us. Alhamdulillah, our country doesn’t have things like this and we don’t kill critics,” he said.

Mahathir today again defended the Pakatan Harapan government against allegations of policy U-turns, over its failure to implement promises in its elections manifesto.

“We found out what we wanted to do can’t be done. It would be stupid to go ahead. Better to adjust plans.”

Meanwhile, Mahathir lamented that MPs were not using the opportunity to debate real issues in Parliament but were resorting to rhetoric.