The Malay community views Anwar Ibrahim as a liberal and does not support him, Mahathir Mohamad said in a new interview that could be more telling of his personal position than he had been letting on publicly previously.

The former prime minister said in a Sinar Harian interview that this has been the case since the time Anwar was still an Umno leader.

The Sinar Harian interview, almost an hour long, was Mahathir’s first interview since resigning on Feb. 24.

In it, Mahathir also blamed Najib for taking down his ruling coalition.

Anwar is now PKR president.

Malays fear liberalism

Mahathir said the Malays feared liberalism as it could lead to an erosion of their rights and privileges.

“If we look back, when he left Umno while I was still the prime minister, he tried to form a party to oppose me," Mahathir said of Anwar.

“When Anwar left, he formed a liberal party. He wanted the support of DAP so he invited DAP in, invited PAS in. His philosophy is liberal.”

Mahathir went on to disclose his personal views about Anwar, who had been his anointed successor.

Between Najib and Anwar, Mahathir chose Anwar

But the drawn out power transition resulted in the political crisis that eventually brought down the Pakatan Harapan administration and allowed Perikatan Nasional to stroll into power.

Mahathir said: “I have issues with Anwar. I admit it. When I was still the Umno president, Anwar was dropped and sentenced to imprisonment."

“When we wanted to fight and bring down Najib, I thought between Najib and Anwar, Najib was the more dangerous."

“So I was willing to refer back to Anwar; I was even willing to work with DAP. If not, we would not have defeated Barisan Nasional,” he said in the interview.

These revelations are a stunning reversal of Mahathir's previous insistence that he had been prepared to step aside for Anwar after Malaysia was done hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in November 2020.

Mahathir already revealed previously that he was baited into considering a new coalition with what were then opposition parties.

This was after Mahathir's political secretary convinced him that Anwar would demand to be made the deputy prime minister.

Mahathir also appeared to blame Anwar for letting Perikatan Nasional take over the federal government.

Mahathir said Anwar was “obsessed” with becoming the PM, causing PH to withdraw support for Mahathir at a crucial point in the crisis.

Mahathir resigned unexpectedly in February to trigger a political crisis that brought down the PH administration.

His move culminated in Muhyiddin Yassin’s appointment as the new PM heading the new Perikatan Nasional government.