When asked if he would consider working with Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) chairman Mahathir and Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Muhyiddin once again, Anwar said PH would only align themselves with those who were against corruption and abuse of power.

“Whoever agrees, they can come and talk to us,” he told reporters at a press conference at PKR headquarters.

“The door is wide open.”

Earlier, he refused Mahathir’s offer to work together after the 15th general election (GE15) as he felt that the former prime minister’s stance on certain matters was inconsistent.

“It’s all right. We will continue to monitor (what Mahathir says). Next week, he will have a different (stance),” he told reporters after last night’s PH presidential council meeting.

Anwar was responding to a statement Mahathir made on Tuesday. When asked about the possibility of working with Anwar after GE15, Mahathir said the question should be directed to the PH chairman himself.

“The problem is he (Anwar) doesn’t want to work with me (but) I’m a very nice man,” Mahathir had said.

Anwar and Mahathir’s squabbles over succession plans regularly created headlines from 2018 to 2020 – when Mahathir led the country as prime minister during the PH administration.

Analysts had said Mahathir’s refusal to hand over power to Anwar, as agreed upon, had essentially split PH and caused the collapse of the PH government during the Sheraton Move.

Anwar, who was Mahathir’s deputy during his first stint as prime minister from 1981 to 2003, was sacked in 1998 before being charged and imprisoned for sodomy and corruption.

Anwar had also spoken out numerous times against the “traitors” behind the Sheraton Move in February 2020 – when Bersatu and a faction led by PKR’s then deputy president Azmin Ali joined forces with Barisan Nasional and PAS to topple the PH government.

Bersatu president Muhyiddin was later appointed as prime minister of the PN government.