PKR vice-president Tian Chua, who was arrested and gassed on numerous occasions during the Reformasi era in 1998, has called on detractors to reflect on what transpired then.

Similar to the current scenario where political rivals share a common objective, he said the sacking of Anwar Ibrahim had also brought people from all parties together.

"These old people must remember the history of Reformasi... It has no party links. People rose to defend Anwar because he was a victim of political persecution

"People who fight for freedom and justice came from various parties such as PAS and DAP as well as Umno," he said when met after a press conference in Petaling Jaya.

Tian Chua was responding to the criticisms against former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, including from those within PKR.

"The main issue here is that Anwar had led PKR to fight an authoritarian system.

"We are fighting against a system, we are not fighting any individuals...," said the Batu MP.

Former Umno Batu Kawan deputy division chief Khairuddin Abu Hassan, meanwhile, said that groups opposing Mahathir should stay calm and not overreact.

"I want to advise all of them to stay calm. If Tun (Mahathir) had taken a stand to attack Anwar, then surely he would not be collaborating with the opposition parties.

"He had even appeared at events organised by the opposition that included calls to release Anwar," said Khairuddin who is Anwar's cousin and a loyal Mahathir ally.

Mahathir had, among others, in a recent interview with The Australian said that Anwar is now too old to be the country's prime minister.

At a Pakatan Harapan forum last week, Mahathir had also side-stepped direct calls for him to back a movement to release Anwar, saying that to do so at this point in time would only deviate from the goal to oust prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.

During his tenure as prime minister, Mahathir had in 1998 sacked Anwar as his then deputy over alleged abuse of power.

Mahathir had previously said that he would personally drive a lorry to present the palace with one million signatures for the Citizens' Declaration and petition the royalty to intervene in the country's political situation.

The Save Malaysia movement's secretariat chief, Kamaruddin Jaffar, today confirmed that they aimed to present the signatures to the Conference of Rulers that is set to meet on May 11 and 12.

The PKR lawmaker added that the movement so far has collected a quarter of a million signatures.