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KUALA LUMPUR: Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has not ruled out working with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who succeeded him after the fall of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government earlier this year.
The former prime minister, who proposed a vote of no confidence against Muhyiddin, said certain conditions must be met before considering cooperating with the latter.
However, Mahathir did not go into details.
“There are certain conditions to work (with Muhyiddin),” he said in an exclusive interview on Astro Awani.
Mahathir went on to reveal that there were certain sectors of the government that tried to get him to work with the Perikatan Nasional (PN) administration.
However, the Langkawi MP said that he rejected the offer because he did not agree to work with Umno leaders who were being tried in court.
He also claimed that he was offered to lead the ruling coalition if he worked with them.
“They tried to persuade me, but I told them there were conditions.”
On another matter, Mahathir said that he did not rule out the possibility of the federal budget being passed, although he said the government must realize that the allocated RM322.5 billion can be interpreted as Putrajaya simply handing out money without a proper plan.
He said the government and the Finance Ministry should listen to the views of opposition MPs as they represent the people.
Earlier tonight, Mahathir said that the four MPs from his new Pejuang party will vote against the 2021 budget because the government did not take into account the opinions given to improve the budget.
Returning to the issue of leadership, Mahathir denied the idea that he intended to prevent PKR president Anwar Ibrahim from becoming prime minister.
He said the Port Dickson MP should have succeeded him in 1998, but that did not happen due to some factors, including the latter’s incarceration.
He said he had the same plans for Anwar to take the reins when he was serving his second term as prime minister under Pakatan Harapan, but they did not materialize when the government collapsed after 22 months.
“But he (Anwar) is telling people that apparently I had prevented him (from becoming PM). But that was not my intention. If people want Anwar, choose Anwar. “
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