Strange times breed strange bedfellows, and none is stranger than veteran opposition politician Lim Kit Siang and his arch enemy former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Lim said as the country is being torn apart by political crises in both BN and Pakatan, he is even willing to work with Mahathir if it will save the country.

This, he said is regardless of former information minister Zainuddin Maidin's allusions to "skeletons in Mahathir's cupboard".

"The focus of the present must be unwaveringly to 'Save Malaysia' from the present roller-coaster policies that threaten to plunge Malaysia down the slippery slope, whether in nation-building, politics, economics, education or other aspects of national life to that of a failed state.

"For this formidable task, we must be prepared to put our differences in the past to one side and concentrate all our energies on one common agenda, to save Malaysia from all centrifugal forces (that will) tear the country asunder.

"On this agenda, I am prepared even to work with Mahathir to save Malaysia,” said Lim in a speech to Malaysian students in Alexandria, Egypt yesterday.

Lim said recent events in the political scene require a completely new approach, one that he had been mooting lately of a "new coalition" across both existing BN and Pakatan leaders in order to defend the federal constitution and the country's fundamental freedoms.

"The events of the past 26 days have fortified the need for new thinking, even thinking the unthinkable, about the unprecedented political landscape evolving in the country, for not only are the two political coalitions in the country [...] in serious trouble, the very existence of the Malaysian federation has been called into question for the first time since the formation of Malaysia in 1963," said the Gelang Patah MP.

'Abnormal times'

"Never before has the ruling coalition in Malaysia come under such intense attack," said Lim, commenting on Mahathir's open attacks against Najib and his policies, while admitting Pakatan itself was on the brink of collapse over the hudud row.

"It is no exaggeration to say that both BN and Pakatan Rakyat are facing a 'life-and-death crisis, which has mushroomed into a life-and-death crisis for the Malaysian Federation formed in 1963."

"It is in these abnormal political circumstances where the politics of the country seemed to have entered 'no man’s land'," said Lim, that he has mooted the idea of new partnerships.

Lim's remark comes the same day former law minister Zaid Ibrahim suggested Mahathir mend ties with his former number deputy and jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim after 17 years of animosity.

Zaid, a former Umno leader who joined PKR and then left under acrimonious circumstances, had often been critical of Anwar, particularly when he decided to run against the PKR de facto leader in the Kajang by-election last year.

However, in a surprising change of heart, Zaid yesterday said Anwar and Mahathir are the only two people who could unite the nation and steer it out of the present morass.

In his blog posting, he also cited a purported meeting between PKR deputy president and Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin Ali and Mahathir in London, which remains unconfirmed, asking if it was a prelude to the "mother of all meetings".