Incarcerated leader Anwar Ibrahim should decide and make known his choice of an interim leader who can lead the opposition to victory, former law minister Zaid Ibrahim said today.

In his latest blog posting, Zaid said this would help rectify the inability of the current crop of opposition leaders to decide on who will be the next prime minister, should the opposition win Putrajaya.

Also in the posting, he jumped to the defence of Bersih activist Mandeep Singh, who recently received flak for his article bemoaning the lack of will among opposition leaders to truly unite to fight against Barisan Nasional.

Zaid said Mandeep, in his article, was merely representing the views of "many Malaysian voters".

"With all the problems facing (Prime Minister) Najib Razak and BN, one would have thought it would not be difficult for the opposition to win the next election - but Mandeep argued that it would probably take another 30 years before the opposition can get their act together, judging by their inability even to name a leader of the opposition, among other things.

"Some three months ago, I mentioned that the same issue had been raised by many frustrated opposition supporters. I ventured to suggest that Anwar Ibrahim, although incarcerated, should name an interim leader of the opposition so that voters could have the confidence that such a leader might lead the opposition to victory," Zaid wrote.

Among the problems faced by the opposition, he pointed out, was many wanting to be the next prime minister, and Anwar's final words on this, can put the matter to rest, he added.

"This leader (named by Anwar) has to be someone who can maximise the opposition’s chances of winning and, at the same time, he or she must have Anwar’s confidence that when the pardon process is done, Anwar will be appointed prime minister."

He said the decision by former prime minister and Bersatu chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad to get into a formal pact with Pakatan Harapan instead of still dilly-dallying with PAS, is a big step towards preparing for a united opposition - one that would enable seat allocation talks and manifesto preparation arrangements.

"Many months have been lost and we should now proceed with confidence to face the Najib-Hadi axis at the general election," he said, referring to PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang.

"Anwar must act now, before we waste more months talking about nothing. The Najib-Hadi axis isn’t very strong and it can be beaten. We just need to inspire a new wave of excitement and belief among voters that this time, change is for real."

Not acting on the matter now would disappoint many voters like, Mandeep, Zaid added.