KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad asserted today that they have again resolved their differences and were joining forces to finish the job started when Pakatan Harapan won the 14th general election.
Reaffirming their rejection of the Perikatan Nasional administration that came to power unelected, the PKR president and Bersatu chairman said much of the reforms they introduced were being rapidly dismantled.
“We have long set aside for differences, disputes, and disagreements for the people. We are old, and we do not have much time left.
“Yet the spirit for the battle still burns bright in the youth who dream of reforms. It is time for us to rise up once more and return the people’s mandate to the rightful owners,” the two said in a joint statement.
The two also said May 9, 2018, should not be a date remembered as the reunification of Dr Mahathir and Anwar, but one when the people united to reject the fiction of the previous Barisan Nasional government.
PH secured an unlikely general election victory exactly two years ago today.
Dr Mahathir went on to become the seventh prime minister while Anwar secured a royal pardon and eventually won his way back into Parliament.
Anwar, who was sacked by Dr Mahathir as his deputy in 1998, was presented as the latter’s immediate successor as the prime minister, but their mistrust of each other allowed Dr Mahathir to be baited into believing that Anwar was manoeuvring against him in February.
A political crisis ensued when Dr Mahathir resigned as the prime minister after saying he would not work with Umno en bloc, which his party wanted to do after abandoning PH.
This allowed Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to secure his appointment as the prime minister as the head of Perikatan Nasional government.
Anwar and Dr Mahathir had purportedly set aside decades of enmity to team up previously for the campaign against Datuk Seri Najib Razak and BN.
However, Dr Mahathir repeatedly issued remarks that indicated he never buried the hatchet with Anwar.
