Anwar: Dr M a ‘blatant liar’ with ‘selective amnesia’
By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim lashed out at Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed over various accusations made against him in the former prime minister’s newly-published autobiography.
“Dr Mahathir: (a) blatant liar (with) Selective amnesia..” Anwar told The Malaysian Insider via email today.
The country’s longest-serving PM said in his autobiography out today that Anwar did not deny accusations of sodomy before being sacked as deputy prime minister and should have succeeded him as prime minister if not for his own actions.
Dr Mahathir, who stepped down in 2003, said that when Anwar was hauled up before the Umno supreme council, he “never once referred to the question of homosexuality, focusing only on the affairs with women.”
In the book, Dr Mahathir also claimed that he had met four girls who said they were propositioned by Anwar for sex.
In response, Anwar said that Dr Mahathir’s allegations were not new, and that he had consistently denied them since before he was sacked as deputy prime minister.
“I had denied the allegations publicly (refer to media) since 1997.
“His reference to the 4 women — I denied,” said the PKR defacto leader.
Anwar also said that it was within the context of his denial in propositioning the four women for sex that he did not comment on the sodomy accusations.
“In that context I didn’t mention “sodomy,” Anwar told The Malaysian Insider.
Anwar was subsequently sacked from government before being charged and jailed for sodomy and corruption.
In his book, Dr Mahathir wrote that he had dismissed Anwar as deputy prime minister and likely successor for two reasons- “he was unsuitable to continue serving in the government and he was unsuitable to succeed me as prime minister.”
Anwar however claimed today that his sacking as DPM was due to decisions made by him as the country’s number two leader at the time.
“The reason for dismissal:
My decision for price waterhouse coopers to investigate financial malfinance of Tan Sri Eric Chia and Perwaja,” said Anwar.
Anwar also said that Dr Mahathir saw his as a threat at the time, and was afraid of being challenged, as he (Anwar) knew about the corruption within Dr Mahathir’s own family.
“ (The) fear of being challenged;
Shares and contracts to Mokhzani (Mahathir) and Mukhriz (Mahathir) and bailout for Mirzan (Mahathir),” Anwar added.
Dr Mahathir, who was PM from 1981 to 2003, wrote that when Anwar “declared that he had done nothing unusual and insisted that everyone, including all the supreme council members, had done such things” when defending himself before Umno’s top leadership.
