PUTRAJAYA: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has expressed doubts over Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's ability to lead Malaysia through the economic recession and post-pandemic recovery challenges.
The former two-time Prime Minister fears that Anwar would not be able to come up with strategies and methods to address the various crises the nation faces.
This is especially so he argued since the Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman appears to be primarily concerned with maintaining his support in the Dewan Rakyat.
The ex-Langkawi Member of Parliament said Anwar's performance as a leader was questionable even while he served as Deputy Prime Minister in the 1990s, when he failed to efficiently deal with many problems, including the 1997/1998 Asian Financial Crisis.
Dr Mahathir further claimed that Anwar, who was also the Finance Minister then, failed to find a solution to the financial crisis, and he favoured following the opinion of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, which risked causing Malaysia to go bankrupt as a result.
"When I became Prime Minister for the first time, I went on leave for two months. While I was on leave, Anwar as the Deputy Prime Minister, was given the responsibility of acting Prime Minister, but it seemed that he could not deal with the issues.
In the ensuing months, there was a financial crisis that led to a depreciation of the Malaysian ringgit. Anwar was also the finance minister at that time.
"His approach to the devaluation of the ringgit was to follow the opinions of the IMF and the World Bank. I was of the view that following the IMF and the World Bank will result in our country becoming bankrupt and we would not be able to implement our economic policy.
"But Anwar had no other suggestions but to follow the IMF and the World Bank, which was why I had to take over Finance Ministry portfolio. I was looking for a way to save the country," he said in an exclusive interview with BH at the Perdana Leadership Foundation here, recently.
He said this when asked his views on whether Anwar has the ability to lead Malaysia through the economic recession forecast to hit countries next year.
Dr Mahathir said Malaysia would not have recovered from the financial crisis had Anwar remained in power.
"There are definitely concerns about Anwar's ability as Prime Minister because based on past experience, (the PKR president) failed to formulate a solution when faced with the 1997/1998 financial crisis, not to mention that he is now facing more complicated problems.
"At that time, it seemed that he could not find a way to overcome the crisis. It is unclear whether he will be able to seek solutions to the country's problems in the future.
"But based on his past experiences (and) his demonstrated abilities (while in office), I fear for the future. There are many problems facing the country at the moment, such as the effects of the pandemic, the economy has deteriorated badly, and the political situation is unstable.
"The people are still not happy with the state of the country. There are many problems that Anwar's (unity) government needs to deal with," he said.
Dr Mahathir was also asked if it was true that various parties believed that he did not want Anwar to become Prime Minister.
BH: Many parties are of the view that Tun does not want Anwar to be Prime Minister. Is it true and why?
Dr Mahathir: That is up to the people and the party to choose him. But I'm worried about his leadership abilities, whether he can lead (Malaysia) when we (are) facing many problems.