The spiritual leader's words may be revered by many, who see him and his party as the sole ray of divine hope in the otherwise hellish cesspool of Malaysian politics.

But one man remains unconvinced.

Beaming his distrust all the way from the African continent, former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad called on Umno to exercise caution when it comes to PAS.

Speaking to Malaysian journalists in Uganda, where he is attending a dialogue session, the 84-year-old statesman described PAS' willingness to work with the federal government as insincere and politically motivated.

He was asked to comment on Kelantan Menteri Besar and PAS spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat's statement that he wanted to make up and forget the political dispute between the PAS state government and the federal government in the interest of the people and Muslim unity.

Once bitten, twice shy

However, Mahathir, who led the nation or 22 years, smells something fishy about the olive branch.

According to him, PAS leaders were only out to strengthen PAS and not the Barisan Nasional (BN).

"I know because I've experienced it in the Felda schemes. We put in Umno people and after a PAS leader (the late Asri Muda) became the minister responsible for Felda affairs, all the Felda settlers opposed us.

"This was because they campaigned for PAS and not the government," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

NONE Nik Aziz had expressed hope that the differences in opinion between the leaders, especially PAS and Umno leaders, raised in the Manik Urai state by-election would be forgotten and both sides would return to the spirit of the Islamic brotherhood.

Mahathir said Umno should be careful about accepting the offer to cooperate to avoid falling into PAS' trap.

"Firstly, who does PAS want to cooperate with? If it wants to cooperate with the BN...join the BN. If it wants to cooperate with Umno...it's a racist party so I'm worried about its intention," he said.

Racism based on facts

On the move by several BN component leaders to join PKR, the latest being former MIC vice-president SS Subramaniam , he said it would have a somewhat deterrent effect on the BN.

"Not many people from Umno join PKR. I once resigned from Umno but I did not join other parties.

"But we see that many BN component leaders who had been well-treated are still dissatisfied with what they've got," he said.

Mahathir said the best solution to the problem was to have a good government that had the people's support.

chedet mahathir blog 210508 On assumptions by some parties that he was a racist leader because he was seen as fighting for the lot of a certain community as posted in his blog, he aid he had long been labelled as a racist leader.

"Before I became prime minister, some viewed me as an ultra Malay. But when I became prime minister I found that the other communities did not complain.

"When I was prime minister they received their rights. Whatever views I post in the blog are facts. If there are facts that I gave that are incorrect, prove it...whatever I said were facts," he said.

Mahathir said it was a fact that there was a racial imbalance in terms of wealth in the country.

"If necessary, this can be audited. For example, under the New Economic Policy (NEP) we have succeeded in producing more doctors among the Malays to create balance...what's wrong with that? If they say I'm racist...they can actually be called racist too," he added.