KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 3 ― The Yang di-Pertuan Agong had not proposed PKR’s Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to be interim prime minister in February 2020, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.
The former two-time prime minister disputed the assertion made by former attorney general Tan Sri Tommy Thomas in his newly-released memoir My Story: Justice in the Wilderness, calling it “nonsense” that the Agong wanted Dr Wan Azizah who was at that time his deputy, to temporarily lead the government.
Instead, Dr Mahathir said it was the King who wanted him to remain in office as “interim prime minister”, though there was no legal provision for such a post.
“Tommy knew nothing about my resignation. According to Tommy I told him that the Agong had wanted to appoint Wan Azizah as Interim Prime Minister. This is nonsense.
“After reluctantly accepting my resignation, the Agong suggested I become Interim Prime Minister. Wan Azizah could not be Acting Prime Minister or Interim Prime Minister because the PH Government had already collapsed,” Dr Mahathir wrote in a lengthy blog today.
After resigning on February 24, 2020 as Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia chairman and subsequently as prime minister, Dr Mahathir said he then met with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on the afternoon of the same day.
“I believe he had already received my resignation letter when I met him that afternoon. He at first refused to accept my resignation. I was adamant and he then accepted it. But immediately he asked me to be interim Prime Minister.
“He never proposed any other name, certainly not Wan Azizah, the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM). I never offered myself but it would be rude for me not to accept his proposal,” Dr Mahathir added.
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