Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he will not agree to Anwar Ibrahim’s offer of an advisory position in government because of his past experience with other prime ministers.
The two-time prime minister and former Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman said succeeding prime ministers had not listened to him when he tried to give advice.
“My experience is that when I tried to give advice to the prime minister, they rejected me and did not listen to me.
“Just like former prime ministers Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Najib Razak and now Muhyiddin Yassin,” the 94-year-old told Sin Chew Daily in an exclusive interview today.

“No, I won’t accept it as no one will listen,” said Dr Mahathir.
He was responding to a question on why he had rejected Anwar’s offer of an advisory role, akin to a senior minister’s post or “minister mentor”.
Anwar had said on Channel News Asia should PH win the next elections. The PKR president and opposition leader said he will consider this rather than accepting Dr Mahathir as prime minister again.
“They talk about a senior minister (or) minister-mentor ala Lee Kuan Yew (the late Singapore prime minister). I’m open to a discussion.
“A new government must be totally committed to reforms, structural reforms,” the PKR president said during an interview with Channel News Asia.
The two-minute 16-second video clip of the interview was posted by Channel News Asia’s Malaysia bureau chief Melissa Goh on her Twitter account on Monday (June 22) night.
During the interview, Anwar was also asked about his thoughts on allowing Dr Mahathir to be the prime minister for the third time.
Anwar replied that with such an arrangement, they would not be able to focus on reform and the economy as time would be taken up by people who would be asking about the next transition of power date, and whether there would be changes to the Cabinet line-up.
“To my mind, he has served twice as prime minister. It’s time that we move on.
“I emphasize that it is not a question of personality. It is a question of an opportunity to begin anew – a fresh start for this country.
“Malaysians deserve something better. (There is) so much disillusionment about politics now,” he said.
In the interview, Anwar also said that Pakatan must get ready for possible snap polls as early as August, adding that he was “optimistic” of their chances.
“We must always, in a democratic system, trust in the wisdom of the masses,” he said.
Dr Mahathir also told Sin Chew that a prime minister would want to leave his own legacy and not be remembered for the advice he received from an adviser.
“The prime minister wants to show that he is in charge of everything and that all the ideas come from him. He would want to have his own legacy and not have others say that he got it from Dr Mahathir,” said the Langkawi MP.
Anwar is currently in a tussle with other PH parties, DAP and Amanah, who want Dr Mahathir to lead the opposition into the next elections.
Besides DAP and Amanah, Parti Warisan Sabah and the sacked Bersatu MPs aligned to Dr Mahathir also want the former two-time prime minister to lead them again.