Business people complained about Pua’s arrogance, says Dr M

PETALING JAYA: Dr Mahathir Mohamad has taken aim at DAP’s Damansara MP Tony Pua, calling him arrogant and accusing him of behaving like a minister during his tenure as the political secretary to finance minister Lim Guan Eng during the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration.

At a virtual media roundtable ahead of the launch of his new memoir, the former prime minister said business people had turned sour towards PH due to Pua’s attitude.

“Lim felt that Najib Razak’s government was crooked and he should do away with all the contracts entered into by the previous government,” he was quoted by Malaysiakini as saying.

“But when you do that, you hurt the contractors and whoever gets their jobs, including workers, suppliers and supporting companies. So, we cannot simply just do away with the contracts nor reduce the contracts by force.

“As the political secretary, you are supposed to report on the politics of the country, not go around implementing government policies.”

Mahathir claimed several businessmen had complained about Pua’s arrogance.

“(While) I cited only one example (in my new book), other business people, (including) a Chinese, told me that he was very arrogant. That’s the word they used. He behaved as if he was the minister,” he said.

He said it was not a political secretary’s place to threaten the business community.

“Because of this person, a lot of business people were against the government because they thought the government was not sympathetic to their cause,” he said. — Free Malaysia Today