TALKS on who should be Pakatan Harapan’s interim prime minister will be kept behind the scenes, said PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar.

The Lembah Pantai MP said PH was encouraged by the ongoing discussions on the matter.

“I’m a very proud practitioner of democracy, as well as my party. The PH de facto leader (Anwar Ibrahim) is very aware of the fact that it (discussion) involves all stakeholders.

“The discussions are being carried out behind the scenes, as there has been a bad representation (of Dr Mahathir Mohamad) in the media,” she said at an event for top PT3 sand UPSR students in her constituency today.

The Malaysian Insight reported that PH and Bersatu chairman Dr Mahathir had said he was willing to take up the post of interim prime minister.

He had said he would accept PH’s proposal to nominate him as the opposition coalition’s prime minister candidate should it win the 14th general election.

At a PH retreat earlier this month, component parties except for PKR had agreed to Dr Mahathir being interim prime minister and PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail being deputy prime minister.

Dr Wan Azizah had said the matter would be brought to the PKR political bureau for further discussion before an announcement was made.

Nurul Izzah said at the recent Umno general assembly, members had given a detailed analysis of Dr Mahathir’s time as prime minister.

The Umno grassroots leaders had said their former strongman was now a mere puppet of DAP.

While some acknowledged the former Umno president’s contributions and still professed respect for him, he is now, to them, DAP’s tool.

“We have positive ongoing discussions on the matter, so we are just going to focus on the reform agenda and what has been approved to be released by PH,” Nurul Izzah said today.

Earlier, she gave out certificates of appreciation and cash tokens to 65 students who excelled in the PT3 and UPSR exams. – December 20, 2017.