Thursday, May 25, 2006

No patching up with Anwar, says Mahathir

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad dismissed the possibility of reconciling with Anwar Ibrahim arguing that it would lend credence to accusations that the charges against his estranged ex-deputy were trumped up.

Anwar was sacked as deputy prime minister in 1998 and subsequently charged and convicted for sodomy and corruption. Anwar has claimed that the charges were part of a political conspiracy against him, an allegation that Mahathir denied.

"If I have reconciliation, it may be interpreted as my belief that actually nothing happened, that it was wrong, my mistake, (that) my decision was wrong, that this thing did not happen.

" But to me, I was convinced, I made the decision, no matter what the people say," Mahathir said in an exclusive interview with malaysiakini.com editors.

Mahathir maintained that it was his responsibility to ensure that Anwar did not succeed him because his alleged homosexuality had rendered him "unsuitable to run the country".

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