Anwar: I was just joking when saying I should have been PM instead of Dr M

PETALING JAYA: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (pic) says he was just joking when he spoke about watching Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad being sworn in as Prime Minister on May 10 and feeling that it should have been him instead.

Channel News Asia reported the PKR president-elect as saying this during a lecture in Singapore on Thursday (Sept 20).

"I was just joking and that became the headline, " he said during a press conference at PKR headquarters here on Friday (Sept 21).

It was reported that during the dialogue session with hundreds of students from various schools at the Singapore Management University, he had said that if he was honest, he he did feel that the person being sworn in as prime minister should have been him, not Dr Mahathir.

Anwar said he was telling the students how delighted he was by the enormous support of the people for Pakatan Harapan having formed the government under Dr Mahathir.

"Then they questioned me about my personal feelings because I was supposed to lead (Pakatan).

"I said of course, if I was not in prison, then I wanted to be there. But at that time, I was still in prison. So they laughed.

Anwar reiterated that the support for Dr Mahathir from all Pakatan component parties must be firm.