Weighing into the heated exchange over Dr Mahathir Mohamad's paternal roots, a pro-Umno portal claims it was Anwar Ibrahim who first harped on the former prime minister's Indian heritage.

The portal, MyKMU.net, also published a video in which Anwar is seen mocking Mahathir over this during a ceramah.

“Anwar is the first one to expose Mahathir's lineage after his sacking as deputy prime minister in 1998... Before this, talk about Mahathir hailing from Kerala was like an open secret in Malaysia. Furthermore, Mahathir was embarrassed to admit it,” it said...