“We must forget the past because it would get in the way of what we want to achieve,” said Mahathir in his speech at the PH convention here today.
The former prime minister was earlier named as the coalition’s choice of prime minister, and PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as his deputy.
The coalition also announced that it would appoint Anwar Ibrahim, who is due to be released from jail in June this year, as the eighth prime minister after going through a process to clear legal hurdles prohibiting him from active politics.
“I thank you for nominating me as prime minister. I’m already 92 years, I won’t be there for long,” said Mahathir.
In his speech which was many times interrupted by cheers from the crowd, Mahathir said it was not easy to join the opposition which “in the past had been against me”.
“But because toppling Najib Razak takes priority over everything else, I am ready to listen to all the complaints against me,” he said.
He admitted that some among the opposition still considered him as “Mahazalim”, a name given to him by opposition supporters at the height of the reformasi protests in the late 1990s.
“But that doesn’t stop me from working to save this country,” he said.
“Those uneasy with me, my policies, my actions, although it is difficult for them, they realise that what is important is not the past, but what is in front of us.”
Mahathir said it was also not easy for Anwar Ibrahim, who served as deputy when he headed the government in the 1990s, to accept him, as it was during his administration that the opposition leader was arrested and jailed.
“Not only Anwar, his family too felt the pressure when Anwar was detained. They have suffered for 20 years. It’s not easy to forget this episode. But in the end, they have managed to get over all the things that took place.”
Mahathir, who led the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition for 22 years, said a political alliance could only work if parties put behind their own interests.
“We cannot make everyone happy. So we must accept a situation in which not everyone is happy,” he said, drawing laughter from the audience.
“My party is of course not happy too. We asked for more, but in the end, we did get some seats,” said the PPBM chairman.
PH chief secretary Saifuddin Abdullah today announced that top leaders from PKR, DAP, Amanah and PPBM had agreed to settle on seats allocation between them in Peninsular Malaysia.
PPBM will contest 52 seats, followed by PKR (51), DAP (35) and Amanah (27).
He said the seats negotiations were not easy and they faced challenges when major parties such as PKR demanded more seats.
In his speech, Mahathir made a special mention of Amanah, praising the party for ensuring the negotiations were successful.
“The party which made the seat negotiations a sucess is Amanah,” he said, as the crowd gave a standing ovation to Amanah president Mohamad Sabu who was seated among the audience.