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PETALING JAYA: Dr Mahathir Mohamad has told Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Anwar Ibrahim to stop blaming him over his failure to become Malaysia’s prime minister.

In a blog post, Mahathir said Anwar and his supporters had repeatedly accused him of not fulfilling his promise to hand over the top post to the PKR president when PH was in power.

The former prime minister said they also blamed him for not discussing his decision to resign from the top post in 2020, and maintained this was not what caused the toppling of the PH government.

“If the PH government didn’t fall, they could have named Anwar to replace me. For example, in the UK, when its prime minister resigns, the ruling party determines who takes over the post.

“Liz Truss recently resigned without discussing the matter with other leaders. She resigned when she felt she had no support. That is similar to what I did,” the Pejuang chairman said.

Mahathir said it was Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin, Hamzah Zainudin and former PKR deputy president Azmin Ali who were at fault, by leading other Bersatu and PKR MPs out of PH, thus causing the coalition to lose its majority.

“So blame Azmin, Hamzah, Muhyiddin and their followers who were involved in the Sheraton Move. That’s what prevented Anwar from becoming prime minister.

“In fact, Anwar is also at fault because he made Azmin and several PKR MPs conspire with Muhyiddin. Don’t just keep on blaming me,” the former Bersatu chairman said.

Prior to the Sheraton Move in February 2020, Mahathir had repeatedly promised to hand over the top post to Anwar, who was christened by supporters as prime minister-designate.

In December 2019, Mahathir said he would hand over the prime minister’s post after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit which was slated for November 2020.

After prolonged discussions between PH leaders on Feb 21, 2020, Mahathir told a press conference in the wee hours of the morning on Feb 22 that the coalition’s presidential council had given him the discretion to decide when to step down.

The Sheraton Move occurred a day later, on Feb 23, 2020, sparking a chain of events that would eventually lead to the fall of the PH government.