An Umno minister has ridiculed opposition leaders once jailed by former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad for now taking lessons on democracy from the purportedly self-confessed dictator.

"It is ironic for anyone who understands Malaysian history to hear Dr Mahathir Mohamad talking about democracy.

"Only recently he openly admitted that he was a dictator when in power - which we all knew anyway.

"It is even more ironic that Dr Mahathir's new allies in the opposition seem to be taking lessons on democracy from him.

"Because the main opposition leaders, Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng, were all jailed during Dr Mahathir's tenure as prime minister," said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan in a statement today.

Rahman claimed Mahathir's damage to the "independence of the judiciary and rule of law ... have since been restored".

"Laws that Dr Mahathir used so extensively to repress opponents, such as the Internal Security Act (ISA), have been abolished by Prime Minister Najib Razak.

"The right to protest has been codified into law for the first time under the Peaceful Assembly Act," he said, claming "Malaysian democracy flourishes in a way that it never did under Dr Mahathir".

Dr M's 'deranged rantings'

Former Umno rebels Mahathir and former Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin with their new party Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) have been rallying for a broad opposition coalition to oppose BN.

Their latest move was to rope in PAS support over the past week.

Mahathir's former political victims such as Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) president Mohamad Sabu have said he they are willing to put their past grouses aside for the sake of saving Malaysia from BN rule.

Meanwhile Abdul Rahman called Mahathir "bitter" for the latter's failure to remove Najib from power, and his statements "deranged rantings of a bitter old man".

"After all, why would anyone take lessons on democracy from a self-confessed dictator?"