24 years after sacking Anwar, Dr M still has no confidence in new PM

 

In the early 1990s, Anwar Ibrahim was being groomed by Dr Mahathir Mohamad to be the next prime minister, before it all fell apart and the former got sacked as deputy premier in 1998.

Fast forward 24 years and one month into Anwar’s premiership, Mahathir still has no faith that his former disciple can do a good job as prime minister.

In an exclusive interview with Berita Harian, the nonagenarian said Anwar does not have what it takes to face the country’s economic recession and the challenges of the post-pandemic recovery.

This is based on his views of Anwar’s performance as finance minister in the 1990s.

He alleged that Anwar had also failed to find a solution when the 1997 Asian financial crisis hit.

"When I became prime minister for the first time, I went on leave for two months. Anwar was given the responsibility as the acting prime minister, but it seemed that he could not deal with the problems.

"After that, there was a financial crisis in which the Malaysian ringgit depreciated. At that time, Anwar was also the finance minister.

"But Anwar had no other suggestions other than following the IMF and the World Bank, that's why I had to take over the duties as the finance minister because I was looking for a way to save the country," he said during the interview today.

Mahathir had argued that getting a bailout from IMF and World Bank - as Anwar proposed - could bankrupt Malaysia.

The Asian financial crisis was just the start of Anwar and Mahathir falling out.

It would culminate in Anwar’s sacking in 1998 and his imprisonment the year after.

The two would mend fences in 2016 when Mahathir sought to gain opposition support in his quest to oust Najib Abdul Razak.

When Mahathir, as the head of Pakatan Harapan, became prime minister again in 2018, there was an agreement that he would cede power to Anwar.

However, this never came to fruition.

Mahathir had been accused by critics of allowing the 2020 Sheraton Move plot to take shape in order to retain power and deny Anwar the premiership.

The move, however, ended with Mahathir losing power as well and marked his rapid decline in influence, with both he and his party Pejuang losing all their deposits during the 15th general election.

Strange pact

Meanwhile, Mahathir also shared his thoughts on Harapan and BN forming a government together, saying that it would undermine the people's trust in the promises and stance of political parties,

He said it also disrespected voters who supported both coalitions who had believed they would each reject the other.

"This gives the impression that the election is not effective in determining the party that will become the government based on good promises.

“They may do things that are outside of or against their stances," said the former prime minister.

Mahathir also called the pact strange and referenced a mantra by now-Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi during Umno’s annual general meeting last year.

“Umno used to say ‘No Anwar, no DAP’ but now they’ve accepted their enemy as the prime minister and they are cooperating with DAP,” he concluded.

During the Sheraton Move, Mahathir had himself attempted to form a unity government with the support of all MPs, with plans to form a cabinet based on “individuals” as he did not want to work with Umno as a party.

This idea was rejected by Umno and PAS, which had initially supported Mahathir, but later threw support to Muhyiddin Yassin instead, while Harapan also withdrew support for the nonagenarian.

Meanwhile, Mahathir also infamously said the Harapan manifesto in 2018 was not a “holy book” when grilled on the non-delivery of key promises.

He said that the manifesto made “all kinds of promises” as Harapan did not expect to win that year’s election. - Mkini