PUTRAJAYA, Oct 31: On his final day as the fourth prime minister of Malaysia, Dr Mahathir Mohamad on Friday delivered a heartfelt message of gratitude to Malaysians from all walks of life for supporting him during the good and bad times throughout his 22 years at the helm of the nation.

Speaking at his final media conference here before bowing out, Dr Mahathir said he managed to weather some challenging times during his stewardship of the country due to the support of the people.

Dr Mahathir said it gave him great satisfaction to receive all the thank you notes and letters of appreciation for his contributions to the country.

“Such gestures of appreciation and gratitude make me feel a sense of satisfaction and all these extended to me in return are greater than any other,” he said at the half-hour news conference.

Asked about his feelings barely hours from handing over the mantle to his deputy, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Dr Mahathir said he felt relief that the “burden” of leading the country was about to be removed from his shoulder.

Dr Mahathir was modest about his place in history.

“As Shakespeare said, the evil that men do lives after them and the good is oft interred in their bones.”

Mahathir Mohamad was composed throughout the session, although at times he appeared to be trying to keep his emotions under control, prompting glances from wife Siti Hasmah who was sitting beside him.

Asked about her feelings on her husband’s retirement, the Malaysian First Lady said that she too felt relieved and in jest, thanked the people for “returning” her husband to her.

Admitting that he felt a tinge of sadness, Dr Mahathir said the fact was that he had been prime minister for too long and it would be good to have a change in the country.

The session was dominated by questions that were personal in nature rather than the usual political and economic matters.

Queried on how he seemed to keep his feelings in check in the face of difficult situations, Dr Mahathir said: “Of course I look calm but my brain is spinning because I think all the time.”

Touching on his immediate plans after retirement, the 78-year-old leader said that he would leave for a vacation abroad on Saturday.

“I’ll take things as they come. And I may be writing my experiences with the hope that they could be useful to others,” he said.

Asked whether he saw himself continuing to be vocal, Dr Mahathir said: “It depends on the occasion. I must admit that I receive many invitations to speak and as the occasion arises, I will give my frank opinion about things.”

Dr Mahathir also said he was happy that Malaysia was now better known internationally and even though people do not agree with its voice, they would not ignore it either.

After the media conference, Dr Mahathir was mobbed by journalists seeking his autograph and wanting to take pictures with him.

Praise, silence: Glowing praise and diplomatic silence marked the retirement of the veteran leader in the wake of an international controversy over his comments about Jews.

The 78-year-old leader spent much of his political career rubbing Western governments the wrong way, while becoming a respected spokesman within the Muslim and developing worlds.

But a speech to the OIC summit two weeks before stepping down, in which he talked of Jewish domination of the world, raised a storm of protest from the United States, Western Europe, Australia and, of course, Israel.

Western governments had little to say on a historic day for Malaysia.

“The embassy has not received any message from the White House,” said a US embassy official in Kuala Lumpur, adding that many of the mission’s staff were more focused on Halloween festivities than Dr Mahathir’s last day in office.

The reaction from Australia, which the outspoken premier often described as “some sort of transplant from another region”, was also muted.

“I don’t have any comments to make except to re-emphasize the fact the links between Australia and Malaysia are very long, they are very deep,” Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who has refused to react to Dr Mahathir’s attacks on Australia in recent years, told a Melbourne radio station.

Malaysia’s former colonial power Britain, which experienced Mahathir’s combative nature when he launched a “Buy British Last” campaign in the 1980s, stuck to diplomatic protocol.

“A message of goodwill is being sent to Abdullah Badawi. It is normal practice to send one to the incoming leader,” a senior official at the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur said.

But Dr Mahathir received warm praise from Thai President Thaksin Shinawatra, who many believe will take a leading role in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) after Dr Mahathir’s departure.

“I will be missing my elder brother,” Mr Thaksin told New Straits Times.

The domestic media was adulatory in its coverage of Mahathir Mohamad’s last day in office, thankful for his contribution in putting Malaysia in the front rank of newly industrialized countries with an annual per capita GDP of close to 4,000 dollars.—Reuters