Dr M: Up to the people to decide my successor
Dr M reiterates promise to hand over premiership to Anwar
THE prime minister says he will leave it to the people to determine who is eligible to be his successor. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, while reiterating that he would hand over the premiership to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, said it was up to the people to decide who they wanted to become the next prime minister.
“It is inevitable that I will have to leave.
“There will be a successor. If the people want Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (as prime minister), they are entitled to have him.
“Whoever becomes the prime minister will be based on the voice of the people.
“If the people want someone else, I will relinquish the position,” he said at the Bicara Minda programme here yesterday.
The programme was moderated by Tan Sri Johan Jaaffar.
Present was Dr Mahathir’s wife, Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali.
Dr Mahathir cautioned that he could not guarantee that his successor would be a “good prime minister”.
“I cannot promise (my successor) will be better than me.
“Just like when I appointed Pak Lah (Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi).
“He was a religious person, but look what happened.
“The same thing happened with Najib.
“He was the son of Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, and see what happened.”
He said being prime minister this time around was tougher than his previous tenure as he was not the leader of the most dominant party in the ruling coalition.
An issue he faced was decisionmaking as it had to take into account the views of four parties in Pakatan Harapan.
“I understand that my ideas have to be adapted to their mindset (PH parties). There is a semblance of socialism, there’s liberalism.
“I had to interpret some things so that they fit with the current thought process,” he said in response to a question on claims by some in the Malay community that PH was anti-Islam and a proponent of liberalism.
He said these were accusations made by enemies of the government.
“These enemies accuse us of many things. That we are controlled by DAP. DAP isn’t in control. No one is truly in control in PH. If we (Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia) are not here, DAP will fall. DAP is not in power. If there is something that we disagree with DAP, we would tell them. There’s no such thing as DAP being in power.”
Dr Mahathir took aim at the Barisan Nasional administration for giving out too much aid to the people even as the country faced financial problems.
He said the move by BN was meant to seek support and votes so that they could remain in power.
He said the people had to make sacrifices as the flow of aid was not as readily available as before.
The people, he said, had to accept the fact that the government did not have the finances to continue as it did before.
“That to me is the biggest sacrifice being done by the people.”