FORMER prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he was willing to work with arch nemesis DAP prior to their election triumph in 2018 because they shared a common goal – to bring down Najib Razak.

The 98-year-old said the decision to work with DAP was determined by certain objectives.

“The enemy of your enemy is your friend,” the former Langkawi MP said.

“We set the goals and we set how to achieve the goals. People accused me of using DAP, but DAP used me, too, to get to power.

“They needed the majority and I needed the majority. If I did not get the majority, I could not have defeated Najib Razak.

“Between Najib Razak and DAP, I chose DAP because Najib was the enemy,” he said during the “Keluar Sekejap” podcast, which was co-hosted by Khairy Jamaluddin and Shahril Hamdan.

During his time in Umno, Dr Mahathir had frequently attacked DAP, going as far as to call it a chauvinistic party.

However, the nonagenarian amended ties with DAP after forming Bersatu and joining the opposition as part of the Pakatan Harapan coalition.

This prompted Shahril to ask Dr Mahathir on the consistency of his stance towards PAS, a party that he now supported.

“Now there is a problem and I realised there was no other choice but to work with PAS. In this current situation, this is the choice I had to make,” he said.

Dr Mahathir was a special guest during the PAS’ recent muktamar and was also given the opportunity to address the crowd during the Islamist party’s annual meeting.

He had also campaigned for Perikatan Nasional (PN) in several by-elections and was named an adviser for the four states governed by the opposition coalition.

In the 2022 general election, Dr Mahathir lost his parliamentary seat, including his deposit in Langkawi, to PN’s Mohd Suhaimi Abdullah.

Dr Mahathir contested under the Pejuang banner, a party he helped form after he was dismissed from Bersatu, following the Sheraton Move in 2020. – November 13, 2023.