TUN Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that he would still be prime minister had it not been for PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The Pejuang chairperson said in an interview with Malay daily Utusan Malaysia that after his resignation as prime minister on Feb 24, 2022 the Yang di-Pertuan Agong had to determine which member of parliament (MP) held the majority support.
“If not because of Anwar I would still be prime minister. When I resigned, the Agong asked all 220 MPs to write down their choice for prime minister,” Mahathir recalled.
“I thought Pakatan Harapan (Pakatan) would choose me because I was with [Pakatan] but Anwar said he had a lot of support. [Harapan] gave Anwar 92 votes while I had 62 which are not from Pakatan but from others…I don’t know who.
“If I received 62 votes and if I still receive 92 votes, I would have 154 and I would be prime minister but [Anwar] caused me to lose [and] he lost as well.”
Mahathir said this when explaining that Pejuang will continue to reject working under a grand opposition with Pakatan if it is led by Anwar or Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
He further explained that it was the opposition leaders’ attitude of being not honest (tidak lurus) that had led to Pejuang making the decision to reject the big tent concept.
When quizzed on why he thought Anwar and Muhyiddin as such, the former prime minister’s reply focused only on Anwar.
“Anwar does not have the support [to be prime minister] although he had repeatedly claimed otherwise because he wants to be prime minister. But it didn’t come to pass; he didn’t have the support,” he told the Malay daily.
In the same interview Mahathir admitted that all opposition parties need to work together in what has been dubbed the “big tent” if they wanted to prevent a Barisan Nasional (BN) victory in the upcoming general election.
The “big tent” concept came about after the Johor state election in March which saw BN winning the election by a landslide, securing the coveted two-thirds majority. This is despite BN winning only 43.1% of the popular vote.
The Johor state polls also saw all 42 of Pejuang’s candidates losing their deposits.
On the possibilities of realising a “big tent” strategy Mahathir said that Pejuang has not been involved in any concrete discussions, adding that the party was considering forming ties with “two or three parties” although nothing was decided yet. – June 3, 2022
