Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (left) greets Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad during PKR’s retreat at the Lexis Hibiscus resort in Port Dickson July 19, 2019. — Picture by Ahmad Zamzahuri

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim clarified today that he has never volunteered to be a member of the Mahathir Cabinet in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government.

The PKR president said he respected the coalition’s consensus decision and will await his turn, in response to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s reported remarks that there is currently “no room” in the Cabinet for Anwar.

“Thank you, I’ve never offered myself to be a member of the Cabinet. I am tied to the PH consensus that I should give the full space for PM Tun Mahathir to lead the present Cabinet and the understanding is that I will only assume [office] at the right moment.

“So there is no issue at all whether I would like to be a member of the present administration. I made it very clear. The prime minister is Tun Dr Mahathir and the deputy prime minister is Wan Azizah until I take over,” Anwar said in a news conference here earlier that was aired on Facebook.

Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail is Anwar’s wife.

Dr Mahathir told reporters last night that he has no plans to add more ministers despite confirming days earlier that he had discussed potential changes to his Cabinet with its members.

Anwar also agreed with a statement by PKR vice-president Zuraida Kamaruddin that only fate and destiny will decide whether or not he will succeed Dr Mahathir.

“That is true. Life, death, all of it is destined. Being a minister, not being a minister, it is all the work of fate and destiny,” he said.