Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad maintained he is still himself and operates in his usual style.

When asked by an audience at his talk on "The Future of Democracy in Asia" at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, on attorney-general Tommy Thomas’ remarks about him in an interview that he was a reformed character, Mahathir said Thomas was both right and wrong.

“I am still myself. I still operate in the same way, but I have to show respect for the wishes of the others, and particularly with regard to what they call cronyism," he said.

Mahathir explained that he was actually helping people who were capable of making profits from whatever business they were doing.

"If you ask someone with no business knowledge and ask him to conduct business which he has no business knowledge, then you invite failures.

"So, when you give contracts – today we must do by tender. Before there was limited tender, now with full tender, everybody can make a bid," he said.

On his relationship with PKR president-elect Anwar Ibrahim, Mahathir said he would hand over his premiership to Anwar when he retires in two to three years.

"I have no problems with him,” he said.

Responding to a question about the 1MDB, the prime minister said that the priority was to go for cases where the evidence had already been gathered.

For example, in the US, the money was used to buy properties and to produce a film, he said.

"The money that was laundered was our money. We have a right to that. We will negotiate with the Americans," he added.

Mahathir said the 1MDB issue would be dealt with "one by one" and at the moment, it was about abuse of power by the former prime minister.

On a question about countries involved in 1MDB, he said: “There are people who break the law in our country. Sometimes they run away to other countries. We do our best to negotiate. We cannot go to war."

- Bernama