Dr M openly threatened to sack me 3 times, says Guan Eng

Former finance minister Lim Guan Eng claims former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad threatened to sack him three times in front of other Cabinet members.

(NST) – In a Facebook post, Lim said Mahathir made the threats over his insistence on fulfilling Pakatan Harapan’s 2018 election manifesto, including reducing the North-South Highway toll by 18 per cent.

“He also opposed my efforts to implement open tenders for government procurements and to grant development allocations to our members of Parliament (MPs).

“Despite his opposition, I managed to lobby a majority of Cabinet members to agree with these proposals, much to his chagrin.”

He was commenting on the book “Shattered Hopes” by Romen Bose, which details political events after the 14th general election.

He accused Mahathir, the country’s longest-serving prime minister of using “selective memory” to portray himself favourably.

Lim said while memory lapses could be attributed to Mahathir’s advanced age, there was a need for him to set the record straight.

“As his finance minister, I had a ringside seat to his commendable start in his second stint as prime minister, aiming to deliver on our 2018 PH general election manifesto.

“Unfortunately, this promise quickly deteriorated into open contempt for, and the flagrant breach of, nearly every major election promise made by PH,” Lim said.

Lim cited instances where Mahathir declared the election manifesto non-sacrosanct and opposed major promises like toll reduction, which led to PH’s decline in popularity.

“The 2018 Pakatan administration rapidly spiralled into daily acrimonious battles between those seeking to uphold major election promises and his supporters, led by then-PKR deputy president and economic affairs minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali.”

Lim also noted Mahathir’s surprise at his opposition to banning Umno as a political party, emphasising the right to freedom of association.

He said Umno did not ban DAP or PKR when they were in power, and together with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, they managed to persuade Mahathir to drop the idea.

“Mahathir was also angry with the role played by then-Damansara MP Tony Pua as my political secretary. He hinted many times that he wanted me to sack him. I refused and made it clear that I would also leave if he forced the issue.”