KUALA LUMPUR: In an interview with The Edge Weekly, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s and Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s cases are totally different.
Dr Mahathir explained that Najib’s alleged wrongdoings were well-documented by the media and that everybody had been talking about it for years.
However, in the case of Anwar, Dr Mahathir said he had received the information from the police and, so, the two situations were completely different.
“In the case of Anwar, I was told by police but in the case of Najib, I know from public sources. “The media and everyone said all these damaging things and he (Najib) didn’t sue them, which means he was actually doing all these things.
“So, in the case of Najib, I know it is different,” he said.
Anwar was Dr Mahathir’s deputy in the 1990s before he was booted out of the cabinet and sent to jail for sodomy. Due to that, the two became enemies for years until in 2016, Dr Mahathir left Umno and joined the then opposition pact Pakatan Harapan which has now captured Putrajaya.
Najib took over the premiership in 2009 and was endorsed by Dr Mahathir. However, beginning in 2015, cracks began to show and Najib was heavily criticised locally and nationally, including by his own former mentor, Dr Mahathir.
Asked whether it was difficult for him to take action against Najib, given his relationship with the former prime minister’s father, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein who was also the country’s second prime minister, Dr Mahathir admitted that he had appointed Najib because he felt indebted to Razak.
“Without Tun Razak, I would not have been the prime minister (the first time in 1981). Tun Razak actually told (third Prime Minister) Tun Hussein Onn that when in trouble, call me (Dr Mahathir).
“So, Hussein, when he had to choose from three vice-presidents (of Umno), he chose me and that’s all.
“That’s how I became the prime minister, so I owe a debt to Tun Razak. I thought Najib would be like his father, but I was wrong,” he added.