DR Mahathir Mohamad said he agrees that all opposition parties should collaborate to face the 15^th general election (GE15), but neither Anwar Ibrahim nor Muhyiddin Yassin should be in charge.

He said this to Utusan Malaysia, describing both leaders as “crooked” (tidak lurus).

Because of this, the Pejuang chairman said his party was against the “big tent” approach being promoted by some to have all opposition parties stand together against Barisan Nasional in GE15.

“If possible, there should be a big tent to deal with all the problems our country faces, especially the Malays who have a lot of problems.

“However, we need to find people who are upright. Sorry lah,” the nonagenarian two-time prime minister said in the interview.

He explained what he meant by calling Anwar and Muhyiddin “crooked”, saying they had personal agendas and did not put the people first.

“Anwar had no support but look at how many times he claimed that he could be prime minister. But it never happened. He had no support.”

Dr Mahathir also said if not for Anwar, he would still have been prime minister after the Sheraton Move in 2020.

He said after he resigned as prime minister then following Pakatan Harapan losing its parliamentary majority, he had expected to be named again as PM candidate and not for Anwar to claim that he had support to be PM.

For now, even with GE15 said to be held sooner rather than its 2023 deadline, Dr Mahathir said Pejuang is not in formal talks with anyone on political cooperation for the election.

Pejuang is still observing the political landscape, he said, and whether other parties were committed to fighting corruption, which is one of Pejuang’s chief objectives. – June 3, 2022.