FORMER premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has taken a swipe at Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for claiming that the former had used his position to enrich his family and himself when he was in power.
Demanding that the Tambun MP back his claims with proof, the former Pejuang chairman said while noting that accusations that are unproven cannot be accepted as the truth.
“I want Anwar to provide proof that I enriched my family and I. Making accusations is easy, but accusations that are not proven cannot be accepted as the truth. It is slander,” Dr Mahathir said via a thread on Twitter today (March 27).
During his speech at the PKR congress over the weekend, Anwar had alluded to someone “who had been in power for 22 years and [later] an additional 22 months” using his position to enrich his family and himself.
While the prime minister did not specifically mention Dr Mahathir by name, he further noted that the leader was only complaining about Malays losing their dominance after he was no longer in a position of power.
According to Dr Mahathir, he had tried to “restore the state of the Malays” when he became prime minister for the second time following Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) victory in the 14th general election (GE14).
“But PH was overthrown and I lost my position. That is why I’m complaining how,” he lamented.
“I am complaining now because when I resigned as prime minister, the Malays lost everything. It is true that the Malays became very poor after I was no longer prime minister.”
Dr Mahathir further pointed out that he had wanted to “make the Malays aware of their problems” via the launch of the “Malay Proclamation” rally.
“The content of this proclamation is in accordance with the Malaysian Constitution and also UMNO’s constitution,” he asserted.
“When the government blocked other quarters from launching this proclamation, it is betraying the promise made in the Malaysian Constitution and this is why the Malays should reject the Anwar-led government.”
Dr Mahathir had previously alleged that Anwar was behind the cancellation of the venues for the Malay Proclamation rally which was supposed to take place on March 18.
At the press conference of the event that was streamed live on Facebook, Dr Mahathir also accused the Anwar-led unity government of being a “dictatorship” while noting that all Malaysians have the right to be able to speak up about their unhappiness towards the current government.
The secretariat organising the Malay Proclamation gathering had called off the event after two venues cancelled the bookings.
Dr Mahathir was scheduled to attend the event in his personal capacity and not as adviser of Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra). – March 27, 2023
