KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad fired another salvo at Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today, telling supporters of the opposition leader that they are helping destroy Malaysia’s values in favour of pro-United States policies.

Calling the PKR de facto leader a stooge of the US, the former prime minister said that Malaysia would suffer the same fate as Middle Eastern countries who were now pro-US after undergoing “regime changes.”

“The regime changes are happening so that governments are made to be pro-US.

“If you want a pro-US government here, vote for Anwar,” he told reporters here today.

Several countries in the Middle East have undergone a so-called “Arab Spring” wave of revolutions since 2010 that led to the overthrow of their governments.

The country’s longest serving PM alleged that the US was trying to impose its own version of “democracy” on countries including Malaysia, and that people were being coerced to accept ideas that were against local religious and cultural beliefs.

“Maybe democracy is the best system but you cannot impose your ideas on other people, especially when you have extended the interpretation of democracy to include LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) movements, things like this.

“These are additional qualification to becoming democratic,” he said.

Dr Mahathir’s latest attack against his one-time protege is the second since Anwar announced his intention to contest in the Kajang by-election.

Last week, he suggested that Anwar played a “key role” in the Ops Lalang security crackdown of 1987 by virtue of the latter’s position as deputy prime minister then.

In a surprise move, PKR’s Lee Chin Cheh resigned as Kajang assemblyman, presumably to pave the way for Anwar to contest the by-election.

The EC has set March 23 as the polling date for the Kajang by-election, the country’s third since Election 2013 last May.