DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng has blamed former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed for not fulfilling Pakatan Harapan's promises in their manifesto after winning the 2018 general election.
As the former finance minister during Dr Mahathir’s second stint as prime minister, Lim said that he had a “ringside seat” on his (Dr Mahathir) intent on delivering on the PH general election manifesto.
“Unfortunately, this early promise descended rapidly to his (Dr Mahathir) open contempt and flagrantly breaching almost every major election promise made by PH.
“From stating that the PH manifesto was not sacrosanct to openly opposing major promises like highway toll reduction, the 2018 Pakatan administration rapidly spiralled into a daily acrimonious battle between those seeking to uphold major election promises against his bully boys, led by then PKR deputy president and Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali.
“No wonder PH popularity plunged when he was intent on fighting his allies as ferociously as his opponents,” Lim posted on Facebook.
Lim was commenting on Romen Bose’s book “Shattered Hopes” on post-2018 politics in Malaysia which disclosed Dr Mahathir's views riddled with half-truths and falsehoods.
“Dr Mahathir is an expert in selective memory to paint a favourable picture of himself.
“Whilst we can charitably attribute such lapses to senility due to his advanced age, his unbridled political ambitions and motivation for vengeance politics compels me to put the record straight.”
Lim also said Dr Mahathir openly threatened to sack him three times during Cabinet meetings.
“He was openly riled up by my persistent insistence on reducing the North-South Highway toll by 18% .
“He was also opposed to my implementing open tenders for government procurements and granting development allocations to members of parliament.
“Despite his opposition, I managed to lobby a majority of Cabinet members to agree with these proposals to his chagrin," he said.
He also said that Dr Mahathir was surprised by his opposition to his wish to ban Umno as a political party.
“Much as we were opposed to Umno then, this went against the grain of fundamental human rights of freedom of association.
“Umno did not ban DAP or PKR when we were in the opposition, and we would be worse than Umno should we try to do so.
"I disclosed this to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and we managed to prevail upon Dr Mahathir to abandon his idea.”
Lim added that Dr Mahathir was also angry with the role played by former DAP Damansara MP Tony Pua as his 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 Dr Mahathir forced the issue.” – June 25, 2024.
