Pakatan Harapan will introduce new policies to limit the powers of the prime minister, said the coalition's chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Mahathir, who was once prime minister for five terms, said Harapan was looking into introducing term limits, among others. 

He said this at a forum this afternoon when was asked on mechanisms  Harapan would put in place to keep a new prime minister in check.

Without missing a beat, Mahathir said that Harapan's manifesto will include pledges to limit the powers of the prime minister in order to ensure separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judiciary.

"Perhaps we will limit the prime minister's tenure to two terms. One term (five years) is too short to do anything, I think two terms (ten years) is fine.

"But we need a statutory provision for that, we need a third body that can take action on the prime minister to limit her or his powers," he said

During Mahathir's 22-year premiership, from 1981 to 2003, he was accused of undermining the judiciary, crony capitalism, jailing dissidents, stifling press freedom and squandering public funds, among others.

Harapan will protect Malays

Mahathir was speaking at the "Direction of Malay Politics" dialogue in Putrajaya.

The Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) organised event was moderated by Batu Burok state assemblyperson Syed Azman Syed Ahmad Nawawi and co-hosted by Amanah vice-president Husam Musa.

The event was attended by several notable academics. The live video stream showed that more than 30,000 people were tuned at one point.

In his speech earlier, Mahathir assured his audience that Harapan will protect Malay rights, despite DAP, a party with mostly non-Malay members and leaders, being a member of the coalition.

"We will form a government that will not be detrimental to the Malays. Yes, Harapan has DAP, but the three other component parties are led by Malays.

"A government cannot be formed if just one party were to disagree (on anything).

"For example, on the choice of prime minister, DAP won't be able to appoint (DAP Parliamentary leader) Lim Kit Siang if even one of the component parties disagreed," he explained.

Bersatu can replace Umno

Umno leaders have repeatedly accused DAP of being the strongest voice in Harapan by virtue of having the most number of lawmakers now and are projected to have the most seats in the Dewan Rakyat after the next general election.

Throughout the two-hour dialogue, Mahathir repeatedly urged Malays to let Bersatu represent them

"Bersatu was formed to replace Umno. Even Umno can't contest alone to form the government, it needs to depend on MCA and Sarawak United People's Party and all these other parties.

"If we can trust Umno to protect the Malays, why can't we trust Bersatu to do the same (while being a part of) Harapan?" he asked.