Najib explains why then-mentor Dr M became his Grim Reaper
PUCHONG: After keeping mum for a long time, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak finally revealed details on why Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad became his bitter foe.
The Pekan MP said that the underlying reasons were primarily two; one is Mahathir’s son, Datuk Seri Muhkriz Mahathir and the other is for refusing to dance to the nonagenarian’s tunes.
“I kept my mouth shut before because I still respected Mahathir and our culture teaches us to respect our elders.
“Furthermore, I cannot deny his contribution to me, as Mahathir did support me to become prime minister,” he said in a Facebook post yesterday.
Explaining the matter, Najib said he started rubbing Mahathir in the wrong way back in 2013, when the Pekan MP refused to support Mukhriz, who was contesting for the Umno vice presidency during the party election.
“I did not support Mukhriz as the party vice president because he was just appointed as Kedah menteri besar. In my opinion, I felt he needed to gain some experience first running the state.
“I myself took five years to be appointed to the federal government after serving as Pahang menteri besar. Mukhriz doesn’t have any experience and he was just serving as the Deputy International Trade and Industries Minister before that,” he said.
Najib added that Mahathir was also furious with Najib for not privatising Malaysia Airlines.
“Mahathir wanted me to sell MAS to an entrepreneur linked to him,” he said.
Another issue which courted Mahathir’s wrath was Najib’s failure to revive the crooked bridge project.
In his defense, Najib said that he did try to revive the crooked bridge project but failed as it was rejected by the Johor state government and Singapore.
“If Singapore didn’t want it, what can we do? We cannot go to war or pick a fight with our neighbour for years just for the project.
“In fact, Mahathir himself tried to revive the project when he became the 7th Prime Minister after the 14th general election but failed,” he said.
According to the Pekan MP, Mahathir was also furious with the latter’s decision to abolish the Internal Security Act (ISA) and introduced the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma).
Najib also replaced the Internal Exile Without Charge legislation with Prevention of Terrorist Activities (POTA) and Prevention of Crime Act (POCA) which safeguarded detainees’ right better.
He added that Mahathir was also angry with him for rejecting an application for a RM3 billion free government grant to help Proton.
“At the time, it was hard for Barisan Nasional (BN) to give a large sum of free grant to a company which is owned 100% by the private sector.
“We also thought that giving a free grant to Proton, without having a viable a business partner and new technology, will not make it competitive as our local market is small.
“After the grant was rejected, Mahathir withdrew his support for me on Aug 2014. Even then, the BN government approved a RM1.7 billion grant to Proton,” he said.
Najib said that Mahathir was also opposed to then government’s move to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor by increasing the minimum wage, claiming it would increase costs for investors and manufacturers.
“Mahathir claimed that by imposing a minimum wage, it would affect our competitive edge.
“However, I refuse to make Malaysia competitive just in terms of having low-cost labour. I was also disturbed by the wealth gap between the rich and the poor.
“So, my vision was about turning Malaysia into a competitive country based on innovation and productivity, not because of low-cost labour.
“Can you tell me which developed nation pays pittance to its workers?” he asked.
After all that, Najib said that Mahathir decided to unseat him because the latter wanted a prime minister who would obey him at all times.
“Early in 2015, Mahathir met with Clare Brown at Yayasan Kepimpinan Perdana to use the 1MDB issue to attack me.
“With the help of state institutions, led by his appointees, Mahathir was finally able to unseat me and all those who helped him were handsomely rewarded under the Pakatan Harapan government.
“This is what truly happened without any slander. The rest is history,” he said.
By Irman Hashim
