Turmoil in Malaysia as PM Mahathir Mohamad quits
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad resigned on Monday in a shock move as his alliance that came to power less than two years ago unravelled, but he was reappointed as interim leader by the king.
It came after months of rising tensions in his “Pact of Hope” coalition, which toppled a corruption-mired government in 2018, and as some manoeuvre to block the ascent of leader-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim. But there were calls for Mahathir, the world’s oldest leader at 94, to stay in office from allies who said he had quit in protest at a plot to form a new government and keep Anwar from power. The political drama began on Sunday when Anwar’s rivals from the ruling coalition and opposition politicians held a series of meetings around Kuala Lumpur, stoking speculation a new alliance was taking shape.
That coalition would reportedly have excluded Anwar, a former opposition icon who was jailed for years on sodomy charges, dashing his hopes of finally becoming premier. With the fate of the government still uncertain Monday, Mahathir submitted his resignation to the king. The monarch accepted it, but appointed him interim leader until a new premier is found, the chief secretary said.
The appointment of all minisarquette ters was also revoked, he added.
Despite speculation that Mahathir was driving the attempts to form a new coalition, Anwar and other coalition partners insisted he was not involved.
Anwar - who has a famously stormy relationship with Mahathir - said the premier assured him “he played no part” in the plot, and was “very clear that in no way will he ever work with those associated with the past regime”.
The proposed new coalition was reportedly set to include the United Malays National Organisation - the party of disgraced ex-leader Najib Razak which was ejected from office two years ago. Anwar and Mahathir had put their differences aside and joined forces to take on a corruptionplagued coalition led by UMNO at the 2018 polls. Mahathir, who previously served as PM in 19812003, had made a pre-election pledge to hand power to Anwar but refused to fix a date.