PETALING JAYA: Dr Mahathir Mohamad has demanded that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim back his claim the former prime minister used his position to enrich his family and himself when he was in power.
“I want Anwar to provide proof that I enriched my family and I,” said Mahathir in a post on his blog today.
“Making accusations is easy, but accusations that are not proven cannot be accepted as the truth. It’s slander.”
Speaking at the PKR congress last weekend, Anwar 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 Anwar did not mention Mahathir by name, he also said the leader was only complaining about Malays losing their dominance after he was no longer in power.
Mahathir, who led the country during two separate stints, said he tried to “restore the state of the Malays” when he became prime minister for the second time after Pakatan Harapan won the 2018 general election.
“However, the PH government was overthrown and I lost my position. That’s why I’m complaining now,” he said.
“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.”
Mahathir also said he had wanted to use the launch of the “Malay Proclamation” event to “make Malays aware of their problems”.
He previously criticised the government for allegedly not allowing the March 19 event to proceed, saying the Malays had the right to gather and had their voices heard.
Asked if he knew who directed the venues to cancel the event, Mahathir said he had no proof, but was convinced Anwar was behind it because “nothing like this can be done without his consent or directive”.
