ANWAR SAYS IN NO HURRY TO TAKE CHARGE AS MALAYSIA PM

SINGAPORE: MALAYSIA’S designated prime minister-in-waiting, Anwar Ibrahim, said Saturday that he has no reason to doubt his former political nemesis will hand over the leadership position within two years as planned after sorting out deep-seated issues like corruption.

Anwar and Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad put aside their 20-year feud to help their four-party alliance win elections in May, leading to the country’s first change of power since independence from Britain in 1957.

Anwar, 70, was convicted of sodomy in 2015 in a case that he said was politically motivated. He was freed and pardoned by the king shortly after the recent elections.

The alliance had agreed that Mahathir would be prime minister and then hand over the reins to Anwar. On Saturday, Anwar said that contesting a by-election after a lawmaker from his party resigned earlier in the week was “well within the plan” of his eventual succession, but that he was in no rush to take over.

“I think the succession plan is as agreed,” Anwar said. “Let Prime Minister Mahathir conduct the affairs of the state. We support him, that’s important. And I don’t think we should be rushing to it, because he’s playing a very critical role for the country.”

“The country needs stability and a strong leader now and I want to make sure that he is effective in his position,” he added.