I thank Tommy Thomas for agreeing to be moderator of this discussion.
I must have been the first to inform Tommy in 2018 that he was going to be Attorney-General because I was informed by the Prime Minster, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.
I have never asked Mahathir, when he was the Prime Minister for the second time in 2018, anything for myself or for anyone, and I was surprised when he appointed Lim Guan Eng as Finance Minister.
But I saw Mahathir three times and in 2019 I told Mahathir that the Pakatan Harapan government must be serious with its election pledges and that I was surprised by his statement that the election manifest is not a bible.
He agreed to form a committee to review the implementation of the election pledges, which came to nothing when the Sheraton Move political conspiracy happened and toppled the 22-month Pakatan Harapan government.
It was also in that year I said that I was prepared to have a wager with an UMNO leader that Mahathir will keep his word to pass on the Prime Minister’s post to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and will not dissolve Parliament to call for fresh elections instead, whatever his views on Anwar.
He announced this at the Pakatan Harapan Presidential Council meeting on 21st February 2020, that he would hand over the premiership to Anwar at the end of the year after the APEC meeting, which was forestalled by the Sheraton Move political conspiracy a few days later.
Recently, Mahathir confirmed his position in his recent podcast with Khairy Jamaluddin.
Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the Anwar Ibrahim’s premiership.
Many in particular Bersatu and PAS leaders like Muhyiddin Yassin and Hadi Awang had not expected Anwar to last as Prime Minister for a year.
When you have to fight for your political life, different imperatives prevail.
But when there is political stability and Anwar does not have to constantly look over the shoulders to ensure that he is not toppled, expectations that he would fulfil his election promises are high.
There are going to be mounting criticisms that Anwar has not fulfilled his election promises.
But I urge Malaysians to give Anwar three to four years until the 16th General Election before judging whether Anwar has met or failed to deliver his election promises.
Finally, I wish to support the views of Tawfik Ismail and state that UMNO can regain its political support if it goes back to the nation-building principles of the first three Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn.
We must not fight the battles of the past, and must move forward, based on the Malaysian Constitution, the Rukun Negara and the nine strategic objectives of Vision 2020 to make Malaysia the role model of the world in inter-ethnic, inter-religious, inter-cultural and inter-civilisational dialogue, understanding, tolerance and harmony.