SHAH ALAM: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim says he will provide the evidence of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad exploiting his position to benefit himself and his family when the latter was in power.
"I don't want to fight. He asked for proof, so I will furnish him with the proof. No problem," he said at a dialogue with Universiti Teknologi Mara Student Representative Council members at its main campus here today.
He said this in reply to a question from a student leader. Dr Mahathir had recently given Anwar seven days to retract a statement, in which he accused the former of exploiting his position to benefit himself and his family during his tenure as the prime minister.
In a letter of demand served to Anwar recently, Dr Mahathir demanded the Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman and PKR president to issue a written apology and hold a special press conference to apologise for making such statement.
Dr Mahathir, who is the country's longest-serving prime minister, had described the statement by Anwar during the PKR special congress on March 18 as defamatory.
During the special congress, Anwar had referred to someone "who in the past had been in power for 22 years and an additional 22 months" as taking advantage of his position to enrich himself and his family.
Anwar, who did not specify any name during his speech at the PKR special congress, also said this person had complained about the Malays losing everything when he was no longer in power.
In today's dialogue, Anwar said although Dr Mahathir's governance had its strengths, he had also caused much damage. He also criticised Dr Mahathir for always portraying the Malays as lazy, forgetful and ungrateful.
"This is not true, as which race has no lazy, forgetful and ungrateful individuals? Every race has them (those who are lazy, forgetful and ungrateful)," he said, adding that there were also many distinguished Malay figures and thinkers.
Present at the dialogue were Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, secretary-general Datuk Seri Abdul Razak Jaafar, UiTM Board of directors chairman Professor Emeritus Datuk Dr Raduan Che Ros and Vice-Chancellor Professor Datuk Dr Roziah Mohd Janor.