Dr M used to pressure me to take care of his cronies, says Najib

Dr M used to pressure me to take care of his cronies, says Najib


Former prime minister Najib Razak has responded to Dr Mahathir Mohamad's second letter to Johor voters by claiming that the Pejuang party chairperson had on several occasions withdrawn support for him for not taking care of his cronies.

In the latest escalation of a war of words between the two former prime ministers, the Pekan MP made the claim that Mahathir often put pressure on him to give projects to his cronies during Najib's tenure as premier.

"There are supporters over there who don't believe and ask me to give evidence. Okay, then I repeat the evidence for the last time - of Mahathir pressuring me before he eventually pulled support and started conspiring and attacking me.

"To show that he is angry, on the first day of the Umno General Assembly (PAU) 2013, Dr Mahathir suddenly announced his resignation as a Petronas adviser on the grounds that he was too old.

"On December 2, 2013, Dr Mahathir resigned as Petronas adviser, but less than three months later, he was suddenly appointed as the executive chairman of the privatised Proton," he said in a post on Facebook, today.

The post on Facebook was in response to Dr Mahathir's second letter to Johor voters.

In his second letter to Johor voters on Feb 20, Dr Mahathir admitted that he was ashamed to have to constantly mention the name of Najib who is embroiled in allegations of misappropriation of state funds and has been found guilty on those charges.

Mahathir said he did so to ensure Najib did not return to power.

Najib claimed that the conspiracy to bring him down started when Mahathir's son Mukhriz lost in the Umno election in Oct 2013.

Najib said, apart from Mukhriz's defeat, his refusal to comply with Dr Mahathir's request angered the Langkawi MP who planned to bring him down along with Muhyiddin Yassin in 2014.

“When Dr Mahathir pulled support, he never mentioned SRC or 1MDB but more about my policies like BR1M and the minimum wage to the detriment of the country and the local industry.

"I know the main reason is that he was very angry with me at that time because he accused me of not supporting his son in the Umno party election and turning a blind eye to the request to give a free grant of between RM1.7 billion- RM3 billion to Proton.

"And it was in 2014 that Muhyiddin saw an opportunity and started conspiring with Mahathir/Muhkriz to overthrow me as revealed by Mukhriz in court," claimed Najib.

In July 2017, former Kedah MB Mukhriz said in High court that his father and Muhyiddin had plans to topple Najib.

“I agree that my father tried to topple Najib and this plan started not in 2015 but much earlier, in 2014,” he said in his testimony then.