Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he did not listen to the speech delivered by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak last night, where the latter declared " we will not surrender ".

However, the former premier stressed that Najib must shed light on 1Malaysia Development Bhd's (1MDB) missing funds.

"The problem now is that the money is missing. It is not one or two million ringgit but RM14 or RM20 billion.

"Where has the money gone to?" he asked, pointing that the money belongs to the people and would affect the nation's finances.

"What Najib has done is that he has given a written statement that the money is now kept in Singapore. But the Singapore banks are saying it is not there," he added.

Mahathir was asked to comment on Najib's speech last night that he and his cabinet members would not back down despite being attacked.

He also invoked his Bugis heritage, to state that ancient Bugis seafarers never raised the white flag.

Mahathir than trained his sights on controversial businessman Jho Low, where he said he heard the businessman was giving money to so and so.

“We want to know how did he get so rich. Najib’s brothers also asserted that their father was not rich.

“Yet our ambassador to Jakarta (Zahrain Mohamed Hashim) said he (Najib) is a rich man. In the wedding he spent to bring 300 people to Kazakhstan (for the wedding), where did the money come from?” he posed.

Najib’s office had issued a press release following a New York Times report questioning his and his wife’s wealth where it said the PM inherited the money from their late father Abdul Razak Hussein, who was the second PM.

However, his other brothers had denied that suggestion last February.

RM20,000 salary when he was PM

Mahathir said his salary when he was PM was merely RM20,000, which is one tenth that of a private sector senior executive.

It, he added, was sufficient.

When asked whether Najib had asked him for a meeting, Mahathir replied so far there had been none.

“I have long talked about this. It seems that what I say have had no effect. But when election comes, we lost, and (the loss) is worst than Pak Lah (Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) although Pak Lah sleeps all the time.

“That is why I am worried, it is not because of me or my son. I did not allow my son to enter politics when I was a PM. If I would help him, I would have appointed him as a minister,” Mahathir said.