The PPBM and Pakatan Harapan chairman said past matters could only undermine the unity of the opposition parties.

“I have met Anwar who strangely enough did not ask me anything about that, but he agreed to bring down Najib,” Mahathir told the Nothing to Hide forum organised by PPBM Youth here today, which ended with violence when a participant threw a projectile at the former leader.

Mahathir said his one-time deputy Anwar, whom he sacked in 1998 sparking large-scale anti-government protests, had also not made their old rivalry an issue.

“I met Anwar several times. Anwar did not even ask me to apologise,” said Mahathir. “If we bring up old matters, there would be no end.”

Mahathir said everybody was prone to committing mistakes.

“If we dwell on old issues it would break us apart. If we want to win, we must not question our misunderstandings and focus on our objective to remove Najib,” he said, referring to Prime Minister Najib Razak.

He was answering a question on whether he still believed Anwar had committed sodomy, the reason Mahathir gave when he sacked him from the party and government in September 1998.

Anwar was sentenced to six years in prison for corruption in 1999, and, nine years’ jail for sodomy a year later, before the Federal Court overturned his conviction and freed him in 2004.

Anwar and Mahathir met for the first time in 18 years in September last year, clearing the path for their alliance to fight Barisan Nasional.