Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail is displeased with former inspector-general of police Abdul Rahim Noor's appointment as the southern Thailand peace process facilitator.

However, she said, the appointment was the prerogative of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

"When he (Mahathir) asked me, I did tell him (I was displeased), but I said it was his prerogative," she added in a pre-recorded interview with the radio station BFM, which was aired this morning.

Wan Azizah said that Mahathir chose Rahim because of his experience in dealing with communist insurgents.

"Whoever is chosen, they have to deliver," she added.

Previously, Wan Azizah's daughter Nurul Izzah had called the former top police officer (photo) a "brutal assaulter of an innocent man" in reference to him assaulting her father Anwar Ibrahim in 1998.

Bersatu strategist Rais Hussin also agreed with Nurul, while former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin described the appointment as a “black eye” for Malaysia.

Following this, former minister Zainuddin Maidin defended Rahim, praising the latter's contribution to the nation as a police officer.

Rahim, on the other hand, said Nurul's response was expected but stressed that the “past is past”.

The former police chief told Malaysiakini that he was chosen for the peace facilitator role based on his experience.

“What happened at that time (the black eye incident) is in the past.

"In my opinion, it was irrelevant for her (Nurul) to link my appointment with what had happened then, unless the decision to appoint me as the peace process facilitator was objected to by Thai authorities or the Mara Pattani group,” he added.