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KUALA LUMPUR: Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad has been admitted to hospital for bypass surgery after
suffering a heart attack in May, the hospital said Monday.
The 81-year-old will undergo surgery on Tuesday
at Kuala Lumpur’s National Heart Institute, where he was admitted
on Sunday.
His son Mokhzani Mahathir told the New Straits
Times newspaper that his father had decided to wait for surgery
until after Friday’s celebrations marking the country’s 50th
anniversary of independence from Britain.
“He is all right and preparing for the
operation,” Mokhzani said.
Mahathir led Malaysia for two decades before
handing power to the current premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in 2003.
He was last seen in public at the Independence Day party, waving the
Malaysian flag.
The former prime minister was rushed to hospital
in May after suffering his second heart attack. Mahathir had a first
heart attack, followed by bypass surgery, in 1989. He also had a
mild stroke in November last year.
Despite retiring from office, Mahathir remains
an influential figure in Malaysian politics, and has become an
outspoken critic of his successor Abdullah, whom he has accused of
nepotism and corruption.
--AFP
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