Addressing a group of Malaysians, the prime minister noted that the rehabilitation of the country was going well.

“However, a full recovery may take many, many years, but I hope within a year or two we can set the foundations,” he said.

Describing Malaysia today as a half-dead tiger, Mahathir, however, remained optimistic that the country would be able to get back to its glory days.

He also said he had faith in the new Cabinet line-up even though some of the ministers had admitted to him that they were a little nervous in taking up their new responsibilities.

“But I do hope that over time, our government will be able to handle all the problems faced by the country. With regards to the administrative machinery, I think we are getting there already, although they are new, they are catching up very fast. I have faith in their ability to do well as ministers in the new government,” he said.

Mahathir said the first problem the new government needed to tackle was to settle the debt of more than RM1 trillion left behind by the previous government.

“We never heard the word trillion before, but now it’s a common word, it’s the amount of money owed by the government that we have to pay, it is difficult to come up with that amount of money.

“Yes, we have some funds, Harapan Fund, the public can donate, but we don’t want to be seen as accepting gifts from people because this government is very serious in combating corruption in the government,” he added.

Mahathir is on a two-day official visit to Thailand.