LANGKAWI: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today hit out at PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli for pouring scorn on his leadership as prime minister during Pakatan Harapan's (PH) 22 months in power.
Describing the attack as an attempt to smear his image, the 97-year-old Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang) chairman said he was elected as the PH prime minister after the 2018 general election, despite being criticised by the opposition parties during his first stint as prime minister.
"When he is competing against us, he smears our image. It is up to the people whether they want to believe them or reject people like Rafizi. For a second he supports one guy, the next second he supports the other guy.
"Since I am contesting (in the 15th General Election) he is attacking me. They used to make all sorts of allegations against me, accusing me of being a dictator, accusing me of cronyism.
"However, after I joined their party (PH), I was picked as the prime minister. If they believed that I was so bad, why they picked me then," he asked.
Dr Mahathir, who is defending the Langkawi seat, was responding to Rafizi's remarks recently that PH did not need to cooperate with the former premier to secure the support of Malay voters in the Nov 19 election.
Rafizi claimed that Dr Mahathir did not deliver the Malay votes to PH in the previous general election, which saw PH defeating Barisan Nasional (BN) which had been in power for six decades since the independence.
Rafizi was reported as saying the Malay supports for PH did not change several months after Dr Mahathir and his former party, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) joined PH coalition in 2016.
Meanwhile, Dr Mahathir said a meticulous vetting of the candidates has enabled Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) to offer clean personalities for GE15 without being rejected by the grassroots.
Dr Mahathir, who is also GTA pro-tem chairman said to date, none of its candidate had withdrawn or faced objection from members.
"GTA is fielding 132 candidates, including in Sabah. Although there were some issues, we have resolved them and none of the candidates is withdrawing from the polls.
"At first, we thought it would be difficult to get 120 candidates but (on the contrary) many are interested in contesting the GE15 as GTA candidates," said Dr Mahathir who is defending his Langkawi seat in the Nov 19 polls, after meeting the constituents at Siti Fatimah Restaurant here today.
All candidates representing GTA will contest in the GE15 under the Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang) banner.
Dr Mahathir said if his health permits, he would be travelling around the country to GTA candidates in their campaign.
"I will try to travel around the country to help the GTA campaign, (however) we don't have much time to campaign.
"Tomorrow morning I will be here for the nomination process and in the afternoon I will return to Kuala Lumpur before leaving to Sabah on the next day (to campaign)," he said.