IS this a case whereby skeletons in the closet are slowly ‘crawling’ out, proving right the wise saying that “in politics, there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies, just permanent interest”?
Whether it was sheer selective thinking as claimed by many of his detractors, such was the rebuttal by twice former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng’s claim that the former “openly threatened to sack me three times in front of Cabinet meetings”.
Interestingly, the nonagenarian who was made to helm the country during Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) short-lived administration of 22 months in the aftermath of the 14th General Election (GE14) set tongues wagging when he revealed that the only casualty was the then education minister Dr Maszlee Malik.
“I never threatened to sack Guan Eng (who was then the finance minister). That is a blatant lie,” the world’s oldest country leader at 92 when he assumed his prime ministership penned in a social media post.
“He was the head of DAP, a coalition member. I must respect his position. The only minister I dropped was Dr Maszlee Malik, the education minister.”
𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐎𝐍 𝐆𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄
1. I am surprised at Guan Eng’s comments regarding my stint as the 7th Prime Minister. I thought he and I worked well together.
2. It is normal for him as Minister of Finance to discuss major issues with me. After hearing my view, the…
— Dr Mahathir Mohamad (@chedetofficial) June 26, 2024
Dr Mahathir’s rebuttal came about as Guan Eng had 24 hours prior dismissed the book Shattered Hopes on the abortive PH government as evidence of Dr Mahathir’s possible “senility”.
Alleging that the book by Romen Bose – a former political aide of incarcerated former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak – contained half-truths and falsehoods from Dr Mahathir to paint him in a favourable light, the Bagan MP said he wished to “put the record straight” about the questionable elderly statesman’s depiction of DAP.
He said that while Dr Mahathir started off well after PH won the 2018 general election, the latter quickly began blocking attempts to deliver on its election manifesto promises.
“Mahathir openly threatened to sack me three times in front of Cabinet meetings. He was openly riled up by my persistent insistence on reducing the North-South Highway toll by 18% over his strenuous objections,” revealed Guan Eng n a Facebook post.
“He was also opposed to my implementing open tenders for government procurements and granting development allocations to our MPs. Despite his opposition, I managed to lobby a majority of Cabinet members to agree with these proposals to his chagrin.”
In his self-defence, Dr Mahathir rationalised that even if promises were made in an election manifesto, the cabinet cannot become just a rubber stamp.
“For example, the manifesto simply proposes abolition of tolls. That is simple. But expressways have to be maintained and sometimes additional lane need to be constructed,” argued the now Perikatan Nasional (PN)-slant Dr Mahathir.
“The government did not even have the money to build the road. Maintaining an 800-kilometre expressway is costly. If no tolls are collected, the government or the company would not be able to maintain this first-class expressway.”
Interestingly, Dr Mahathir also denied that he had proposed to ban UMNO (now a PH ally in the unity government) contrary to Guan Eng’s claim that the former was both upset and surprised that DAP did not agree with his plan.
Guan Eng who had deemed such move as “violating fundamental human rights of freedom of association” said the plan to outlaw UMNO was eventually thwarted after he enlisted the support of current PM Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Also of public interest could be Guan Eng’s revelation that Dr Mahathir was also angry towards former Damansara MP Tony Pua who was then his political secretary and that the latter had tried unsuccessfully to have Pua sacked.
“I had worked with many people during my 22 years as the fourth PM. I would like to hear from others regarding my behaviour towards them,” added Dr Mahathir. – June 27, 2024
Main image credit: Bernama
