Mahathir Mohamad, 99, is thinking about a controversial heritage

At the National Mosque of Kuala Lumpur during a recent Friday, a host of men tilted for a close -looking look at the figure with silver hair in a gray suit coming out of an elevator.

They maintained their high camera phones perched on the stairs to have a better overview. Those who could get closer enough have advanced to embrace the hand of man. A worshiper put his hand on his head in a salvation.

The man who attracts all this attention was Mahathir Mohamad, 99, who served more years as Prime Minister than anyone in the history of Malaysia.

From 1981, he ruled without interruption for 22 years, conceiving an economic transformation which reshaped the country with a tin dependent, rubber oil and palm oil in one of the main high -tech exporters in the world.

Then in 2018, after a 15 -year break, he was elected again at 92 years, establishing a record as older world prime minister.

But there remains a deeply polarizing figure, abjured by many for having hardly assaulted his political opponents – above all, Anwar Ibrahim, the current Prime Minister – and for his incendiary comments on the Jews and the race in Malaysia.