KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is little changed from the former prime minister despised by the Opposition, The Economist said when questioning Pakatan Harapan's embrace of the man they once blamed for the country's woes.

In an editorial piece titled "Mahathir Mohamad’s return shows the sorry state of Malaysian politics”, the weekly said that while the former PM has been "reinvented” as an Opposition leader, his views and positions have not.

It said Dr Mahathir was unapologetic for the iniquities he had inflicted on the Opposition, including the "sham charges” he used to imprison Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the nemesis whom he now considered an ally.

"What makes all this even tougher to stomach is that Dr Mahathir’s conversion to the Opposition’s cause looks disturbingly incomplete. Though he is hobnobbing with former enemies, the old codger still finds it difficult to apologise for the excesses of his tenure,” The Economist wrote.

"Many of his views remain wacky: in May he told the Financial Times that he still thinks the American or Israeli governments might have arranged the attacks of September 11th 2001. Can Malaysia’s Opposition really find no more palatable leader?”

It pointed out that the original incarnation of the Opposition pact, Barisan Alternatif, was also formed to expressly oppose and depose Dr Mahathir as prime minister.

The Economist also questioned why the pact was contemplating Dr Mahathir as both its chairman and possible candidate to be prime minister, given that undoing the authoritarianism that came to be under his stewardship is among the pact's goals.

While it conceded that Dr Mahathir was a useful ally due to the communal politics that still thrives in Malaysia, it said the Opposition parties were "playing into Umno's hands” by engaging in the same contest rather than nurturing a new breed of leaders.

It also criticised the pact for claiming it was not necessary to name a candidate for prime minister until it wins the general election.

"That might seem like pragmatism, but it is really just defeatism,” it wrote.

The incongruity of today's Dr Mahathir and his old self was highlighted by the former prime minister himself yesterday, when he raised alarm of a possible crackdown against Opposition parties by the ruling BN.

He accused the present administration of planning to arrest Opposition leaders and activists to quash what little resistance the fractious Pakatan Harapan pact might still muster in the next general election.

He also claimed that the government would engage in electoral chicanery abetted by the Election Commission and its officials.

Coincidentally, these were the same types of abuses Dr Mahathir had been accused of during his time as PM.