Malaysia's ruling coalition Pakatan Harapan (PH) has denied that a statement was issued on Monday (March 25) to voice its support for the leadership of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. The short refutation was issued by the pact's chief secretary Saifuddin Abdullah after local daily The Star published an article purportedly based on a statement by PH. "Regarding a Pakatan Harapan secretariat statement shared today, I would like to inform that the statement is not valid. At this point, no statement has been issued," Datuk Saifuddin tweeted. Earlier on Monday, a statement purportedly by the PH secretariat team consisting of Mr Saifuddin and chief secretaries of all four component parties backed Tun Mahathir to remain as chairman of PH and also urged caution to PH politicians in making statements. The unvalidated statement published by The Star and Malay news daily Sinar Harian has been retracted from the papers' websites. It came after PKR lawmaker Nurul Izzah Anwar said that it was difficult working with Dr Mahathir again due to strained personal ties stemming from her father Anwar Ibrahim's imprisonment in 1998 after he was sacked as deputy prime minister by Dr Mahathir himself. Ms Izzah's frank remarks over the new government's slow pace in making reforms had invited support from the public but a backlash from within the coalition. Former PKR vice president N. Surendran wrote on Twitter: "Is this acceptable? In the middle of the escalating water agreement dispute and a serious ongoing territorial conflict, a prominent Harapan MP calls the prime minister a 'former dictator who wreaked so much damage' in an interview to a leading Singapore daily". Meanwhile PKR deputy president and economics affairs minister Azmin Ali posted a tweet which netizens took as criticism of Ms Izzah. "This country needs doers who are prepared to tough it out all the way, not cry babies. Whatever it takes, we must make it work. If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen,"
he said.