PKR President Anwar Ibrahim said that he has come to realise that Mahathir Mohamad lied about the promise to hand over the prime minister position to him.

In an exclusive interview with Sin Chew Daily, Anwar said that he believed that Mahathir would hand over to him after two years in office.

However, Mahathir kept changing the date until he finally agreed to step down after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November this year.

He added that Mahathir's resignation on Feb. 24 this year has made that promise meaningless.

On Mahathir's resignation

Anwar said that Mahathir's resignation was the sole reason for Pakatan Harapan's (PH) collapse within 22 months.

He said that if Mahathir did not resign, the PH would still be the government today.

He said: "If Mahathir did not resign, all the internal problems could have been resolved internally."

"It is a fact that there are traitors in PKR and Bersatu," said Anwar. "But do you think these traitors all appeared within a week? Of course this was all planned in advance. The question is, why did we allow this to happen?"

He said that Mahathir must take responsibility for this.

Anwar said that he did not know if Mahathir was responsible for PH's withdrawal from Bersatu.

But he thinks that there must be an element of encouragement for them to change their multiracial approach.

Anwar, however, denied that Mahathir's resignation was because of pressure from the PKR.

He thinks that PKR's request for Mahathir to resign is not pressure because it was Mahathir's promise and there was an agreement.

He said: "I told Mahathir to keep his promise. He said that he is leading PH to govern. But during campaigning, he kept bringing up Mahathir, Anwar, and the other leaders' names. Everyone knows about this promise [to handover]."

Anwar said that for him, the party's commitments and agenda cannot be delayed.

He said: "This country needs to reform. Specifically, the economy must grow and help poorer citizens."

Anwar said that he is willing to co-operate, communicate and discuss with Mahathir, but he can never support him again. He added that this has nothing to do with trust.

Anwar said: "Forgiveness is a virtue. This is a Confucius saying, but it is also aligned with Islamic teachings."

On his own potential as a leader

Anwar said that he knows many people are against him becoming prime minister.

He said: "A lot of people were against [the handover]. Many billionaires, including a rich Malay whom I know, I know that those corrupted people are also against it."

"Now they are playing the race card, saying 'Anwar is not Malay enough, never protect Malays'. Some Chinese also criticise me, said that I did not support Chinese schools 30, 40 years ago," said Anwar.

"But I've always stood firm on this position, that our main goal is to strengthen or focus on the economy. Everyone can succeed. Whether you are a Chinese businessman or anyone else, we have to support them."

"I pay close attention to people's welfare. I hate people who steal from the poor. I know I have many enemies," said Anwar.

Top image from AFP.