Muhyiddin Yassin is prime minister because he chose to work with Najib Abdul Razak over working with Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the latter claimed in a speech today.

"He chose Najib, he did not choose me," said the ex-premier who went on to recount the events that led to the fall of the Pakatan Harapan administration.

"In the last general election, we all came together to defeat a kleptocratic government led by Najib. People were angry and we managed to defeat him.

"However, after being defeated he played the race issue. He claimed he was defending Malays who were being suppressed by the Chinese, specifically DAP.

At first, he got PAS and they worked together but that was not enough to form a government. They needed to take Bersatu members and leaders as well," said Mahathir, who was speaking at a community event in Jitra, Kedah.

Mahathir and his wife Dr Siti Hasmah were hosted by Kedah Menteri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir and wife Norzieta Zakaria.

The former premier repeated his claim that, ultimately, the Harapan government fell because other parties backed Anwar Ibrahim at a crucial moment, and Muhyiddin was willing to work with Najib and other Umno leaders facing corruption charges.

"They (Bersatu leaders) wanted me to reject Harapan, but why would I when Harapan backed me? We had a presidential council that backed me. I told Muhyiddin 'one day, I will step down, then you do what you want to do'.

"But Muhyiddin said 'it has to be now'. Muhyiddin didn't want to wait. It has to be now - we exit Harapan and form a Malay government.

"Even working with PAS, I thought ok lah, but working with Umno, we had just defeated them and their kleptocratic government Working with Najib, the enemy, I was not willing to do.

"But Muhyiddin was willing to work with Najib, (Ahmad) Zahid Hamidi, Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, Azeez Abdul Rahim, Rosmah (Mansor) - how could I work with them? So many of them are still in the middle of corruption trials.

"Then, Harapan rejected me and put Anwar as the PM candidate. By the time they backed me again, it was too late. That's why today's PM is Muhyiddin Yassin," said Mahathir.

He recounted the phrase "united we stand, divided we fall", saying that, in the end, it was Muhyiddin who carried out the "divorce" within Bersatu.

"When a friend stabs your back, it hurts," he added.

Mahathir went on to say that politics was not as important as two major challenges faced by Malaysia now - an economic decline and the Covid-19 outbreak.

"This is not the time for politics if we want to face these two challenges, we need to calm down," he added.