Dr Mahathir is Malaysia's longest-serving prime minister who
resigned from the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party in February 2016 after becoming increasingly critical of Mr Najib's leadership in the wake of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption scandal.
He then formed a new political party and teamed up
with his one-time sworn enemy Anwar Ibrahimin a bid to oust Mr Najib.
The 92-year-old has been chosen once again as a candidate to run for the country's top job in the coming general election to be called by August.
"It is very much about getting rid of Najib. He's a monster in the view of most people in Malaysia," Dr Mahathir said.
"They think that he is just about enriching himself, having a good life and at the same time using money to buy support, or promoting corruption on a huge scale, stealing government money by the billions of dollars.
"This is not something that we want to see."
Dr Mahathir, now leader of the Malaysian United Indigenous Party, expected this would be the "dirtiest election ever" and said the only way Mr Najib would win was by cheating.
"We are very strong, we think we can win but what I do think is that he will cheat to the maximum," he said.
"If we lose it is due to cheating, fraud and things like that."
While Dr Mahathir could be destroying the party he loved for 60 years, he believed it was no longer the same party because it was not, "sticking to the original objective for formation of the party".
"It is just there in order to support the existing president to remain as the prime minister of this country," he said.
"His party now is supporting an authoritarian government … the party has already been destroyed by him."
Dr Mahathir said he had no choice but to form a party to oppose the Government in order "to revive the ideals of the nation".
"Anwar and me of course have differences, but the problem facing the country is so big today that we have to relegate all our past experiences to the background and focus on trying to rescue or to rehabilitate this country from this administration, which is going to totally destroy this country," he said.
"We feel this is far more important than our quarrels, and therefore we should team up together and face this problem and overcome it."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-16/mahathir-mohamad-slams-prime-minister-najib-razak/9549028
