Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said that the transfer of his position to Anwar Ibrahim has not been discussed, according to Malay Mail on Oct. 3.

Difficult to specify a date

On Sep. 28, Anwar’s party member, PKR advisory council deputy chairman Syed Husin Ali, criticised the lack of an official date for Mahathir's handover to Anwar as prime minister, and accused Mahathir of reneging on his promise.

In response, Mahathir said that the transfer of his position has not been deliberated.

"We've never discussed it," Mahathir said.

When he was asked whether he would specify a date for the transition in order to provide certainty, Mahathir claimed that it would be difficult to do so.

"We have to study the situation, if the work is half done or not done, then it will be difficult," he said.

In response, Minister of Youth and Sports Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman criticised Syed Husin on Sep. 30, and said that Mahathir will honour his promise to step down before the next general election.

Pakatan Harapan (PH) has previously admitted there was no fixed timeline for the transition, although the agreement did state that Anwar would succeed Mahathir as the next prime minister.

Mahathir's ambiguity

Before the election, in February 2018, Mahathir said he would last "two years at most" as PM if PH won, and would then hand it over to Anwar, according to The Straits Times.

In September 2018, he repeated that he would "honour the agreement".

In June 2019, he changed tack and said that he would not go beyond "three years".

But then he later denied it.

And in September 2019, he said he would step down as PM "before the next general election".

Related Story

Top image from Mahathir Mohamad and Kapten Awalluddin Mrz's Facebook pages.