Guan Eng: Dr M threatened to sack me as minister 3 times

 

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had threatened to sack his then-finance minister Lim Guan Eng on three occasions.

In a series of tweets today, Lim said the threats followed his attempts to circumvent the prime minister's objections on policy matters by seeking approval of the cabinet.

The three issues are - firstly, the annual allocation of RM3.8 million for government MPs; secondly, the review of government contracts awarded without an open tender; and, the 18 percent reduction in toll charges for the North-South Expressway.

"I managed to secure approval from almost every minister in the cabinet for all three initiatives, earning the ire of the prime minister.

"On each of the three occasions that Mahathir got overruled by the cabinet, he threatened to sack me for defying him.

"I was prepared to be axed but continued to pursue these reform initiatives that benefited the people.

"However, Mahathir did not carry out his threat. Instead he resigned on his own accord in February 2020," said Lim.

Lim revealed this in response to Mahathir's speech at a forum last night where the latter said "even Lim Guan Eng had to ask for my permission before he wanted to do anything".

Lim explained that while ministers have to inform the prime minister of any initiatives, in the event the prime minister does not agree, the only alternative left was for the minister to appeal to the cabinet for approval.

"This was done by me three times during my tenure as finance minister (2018-2020) in securing cabinet approval over and above the strident objections of Mahathir," said the Bagan MP. - Mkini