Dr M: If I wanted to betray the people, I would have become PN's PM

Dr Mahathir Mohamad has described an audio recording of him, which is spreading on social media, as "malicious and edited".

The former premier said if he wanted to betray the people, he would have done so.

"I remain loyal to my comrades who fought with me in the 14th general election.

"If I wanted to betray the people's mandate, I would have done so when I was nominated as Perikatan Nasional's prime minister candidate," he tweeted this evening.

The audio clip, which surfaced yesterday, has been disputed by Bersatu leaders loyal to Mahathir.

According to the clip, Mahathir purportedly told the Bersatu supreme council meeting on February 23 that the party would leave Pakatan Harapan.

Mahathir, who is the Bersatu chairperson, challenged those who spread the audio clip to release the full recording of the meeting.

Snippets of the Bersatu supreme council meeting on February 23 have been slowly released over the past two weeks, in an effort to show how Muhyiddin Yassin had gone against Mahathir's wishes by pulling the party out of Harapan.

Muhyiddin had aligned himself with Azmin Ali's defectors from PKR, as well as Umno, PAS and GPS, leading to the Harapan government's collapse.

Initially, the plan was reportedly to retain Mahathir as prime minister under the new coalition.

However, Mahathir instead resigned as prime minister, triggering a political crisis that ended with Muhyiddin becoming prime minister instead.

The nonagenarian is seeking to challenge Muhyiddin's majority in the Dewan Rakyat.

Meanwhile, Mahathir's arch-nemesis Najib Abdul Razak questioned why the former quit as prime minister if he did not want to betray the people's mandate.

"If you had no intention to betray Harapan, you would have discussed with Harapan leaders before you resigned.

"Did you discuss or notify them before you went to see the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to hand in your resignation letter as PM?

"You didn't. Why? Be honest about what actually happened then," Najib tweeted in response to Malaysiakini's article.

Mahathir had submitted his resignation at 1pm on Feb 24.

Prior to tendering the resignation, he had met with PKR president Anwar Ibrahim, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, and Amanah president Mohamad Sabu at his home.

Anwar had told a press conference that day that he did know of Mahathir' intention to resign beforehand. - Mkini