Dr Mahathir Mohamad wants Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to step into the ring for a face-to-face bout instead of throwing blind punches on Twitter and his blog.

During a closed-door meeting with several NGOs yesterday, the former premier said he was prepared to be grilled by Najib on his 22-year tenure.

"I want to ask Najib to be with me on a stage, in front of cameras.

"Najib can ask me about what I’ve done in the past, that apparently I, too, had lost millions of ringgit.

"He can ask me questions and vice versa.

"But he needs to answer, too, together on a stage, in front of television cameras which will be televised throughout the country," he said.

Najib has repeatedly refused to debate Mahathir while some of his ministers like Nazri Abdul Aziz have also deemed it unnecessary.

'I won't entertain PKR kucing kurap'

Asked if he would accept the invitation of Solidariti Anak Muda Malaysia (SAMM) founder Badrul Hisham Shaharin (Chegubard) for another "Nothing2Hide" dialogue session, Mahathir said he was not willing to entertain PKR's " kucing kurap (insignificant)".

Although he was ready to debate with Najib, Mahathir was reluctant to be involved with activists who were also former PKR central leaders.

"He ( photo ) is a kucing kurap from PKR. Tell him that I do not answer questions from kucing kurap ," he said.

Malaysiakini has obtained a video-recording of the question and answer session regarding this topic.

A participant, who declined to be named, told Malaysiakini that the one and a half hour session mainly centred on Najib and 1MDB.

"Many groups want to know about the same issues from Mahathir," he said.

The meeting, conducted at the Perdana Leadership Foundation in Putrajaya yesterday, saw 50 participants from various NGOs.