Wan Azizah: I've not heard of opposition voting in favour of PM

Pakatan Harapan parties have been supporting Dr Mahathir Mohamad long before PAS was in the frame, said Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Commenting on PAS' plan to table a vote of confidence for Mahathir, the Harapan advisory council chairperson said she had not heard of an opposition party supporting the prime minister.

"Typically, the opposition will not vote in favour (of the prime minister)," she told reporters in Shah Alam today.

Last Saturday, PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said PAS would move the vote of confidence during the next Dewan Rakyat sitting in March.

The motion aims to express support for Mahathir's leadership and for him to serve until the end of his five-year term.

Prior to the last general election, Harapan parties agreed that Wan Azizah's husband and PKR president Anwar Ibrahim would succeed Mahathir before the latter's term in office expires.

Since then, speculation has been rife that the plan would not materialise despite both Mahathir and Anwar claiming otherwise.

On Sunday, Mahathir reiterated, for the umpteenth time, that he would pass the leadership baton to Anwar as promised.

However, he pointed out that it is the Dewan Rakyat that would serve as the ultimate decider on who should helm the government.

Two days earlier, Anwar told Reuters that he is prepared to wait another six months to become the premier and expressed confidence that he had the support of Harapan.

Meanwhile, Sarawak Report claimed that MPs from Umno, Bersatu, PAS as well as those aligned to Anwar's estranged deputy Azmin Ali have inked a statutory declaration in support of Mahathir.

Wan Azizah: I was a small-town girl in Ireland

Earlier, Wan Azizah delivered the closing address at a regional conference on peaceful co-existence, hosted by Selangor government think-tank Institut Darul Ehsan, in collaboration with Unisel, Japan's Sasakawa Peace Foundation, and Indonesia's Habibie Centre.

The Habibie Centre was founded by Indonesia's third president, the late Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie.

In her speech, Wan Azizah noted how Habibie left his hometown in Indonesia as a youth to pursue his education in Germany and overcame the challenges of being a minority through cultural assimilation.

Similarly, Wan Azizah, who graduated from Ireland's Royal College of Surgeons, recalled how it was her dream to study abroad in order to gain exposure.

"When I was there, it was a bit of culture shock since I was a small-town girl. But at that time we had basics, we learnt English, we could communicate.

"At that time, I was part of the minority and we had to survive among the majority of different people, different faiths and different way of life.

"Yet at the same time preserve my faith and how I was brought up," she added.

Overall, she said the culture of interaction and getting to know one another must be instilled in a diverse society to bring about a community that works together towards a common goal of peace.

Anwar, who delivered the opening address earlier, touched on how "inaccurate interpretations" of certain Quranic verses and hadith or teachings of Prophet Muhammad had partly contributed to obstacles in interactions between Muslims and non-Muslims. - mkini