Ibrahim Ali recounts acting as go-between for Anwar and Mahathir before the 1998 dismissal

KUALA LUMPUR: Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia president Datuk Dr Ibrahim Ali says he acted as a go-between for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on the night before Anwar was removed as deputy prime minister in 1998.

Speaking on The Tiger Show Podcast Episode 88, hosted by Amin Iskandar, Ibrahim said he met Anwar at the deputy prime minister's official residence and then went on to Dr Mahathir's official residence around dusk, without an appointment.

Dr Mahathir told him the decision on Anwar had already been made, he said.

He said Dr Mahathir then asked him to put a proposal to Anwar: that Anwar resign voluntarily, so that the departure could be explained publicly as a disagreement over economic and financial policy.

Ibrahim said he took the proposal to Anwar, who refused it. By then it was too late at night, he said, for him to return to Dr Mahathir with the answer.

The background

Anwar was removed as deputy prime minister and finance minister on Sept 2, 1998, at the height of his dispute with Dr Mahathir over the handling of the Asian financial crisis.

Ibrahim believes the meeting took place the day before the dismissal, but acknowledged he was not certain of the date.

An account that stands unverified

What Ibrahim offered is his own recollection of private conversations and could not be independently verified.

Neither Dr Mahathir nor Anwar has confirmed this version of events, and there is no public record of the voluntary resignation proposal said to have been conveyed through Ibrahim.

In the public record of that period, Dr Mahathir said the dismissal concerned questions of personal morality, while Anwar maintained from the outset that he was the victim of a political conspiracy.

The rupture led to Anwar's expulsion from UMNO, his prosecution and imprisonment, and the birth of the Reformasi movement. Anwar became prime minister in November 2022, 24 years after the dismissal.