If former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad was so good at uniting the opposition, he wouldn’t need to meet jailed PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, said PKR president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

“He goes to see Anwar. I think if he is so good at uniting (the opposition), he doesn’t need to come.

“But he came. There is something that is more than meets the eye,” she told journalists in Subang Jaya today.

Wan Azizah was responding to a question on whether Mahathir had taken over the role of de facto leader as he was more visible in trying to unite the opposition even though she was the official opposition leader.

Wan Azizah noted that holding the opposition together was tough but credit should be given to Anwar.

“I think it is not easy because we were already seen to be fragmented.

“Give him (Anwar) some credit for holding the fort for some time,” she said.

Yesterday, Mahathir met Anwar while the latter was briefly out of jail for a case at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

It was the second meeting since September last year when Dr M, who had Anwar jailed the first time in 1999, sought to bury the hatchet.

Anwar was credited with uniting the opposition in the 2008 general election and denying BN a two-thirds majority for the first time in history.

However, Pakatan Rakyat disintegrated after Anwar was jailed a second time in February 2015 for sodomy, a charge he claimed was politically motivated.

A leadership vacuum ensued with the opposition failing to name a prime minister candidate beyond Anwar.

Anwar had spent exactly two years in prison yesterday and is expected to be released no sooner than the middle of 2018.

Following the vacuum, there was a debate whoever who is the de facto opposition leader, with Zaid Ibrahim, DAP’s newest recruit, claiming that it was Mahathir.

DAP’s Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo rebuked Zaid, stating that the stand did not receive the backing of the party leader.

PKR deputy president Azmin Ali also insisted that the opposition leader was Wan Azizah.

Commenting on the debate, Wan Azizah described Zaid’s statement as a “personal opinion”.