KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Najib Razak has chided his predecessor, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, for having problems with all his deputies during his 22 years in the office.

“He has had problems with his deputies. When has he ever listened to them or anyone else?

“He is the only one who is perfect, and nobody else,” he said when opening MCA’s annual general assembly today at Wisma MCA.

Najib also said Mahathir blamed the police for Ops Lalang, that saw over 100 individuals, including opposition leaders, arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA), 30 years ago.

“He also never listened to the police and blamed them.

“But I have to listen to the police nowadays,” he added.

Najib also said he never held any individuals under ISA but had actually abolished the colonial-era law that allowed detention without trial.

During Mahathir’s time as prime minister, from 1981 to 2003, he had four deputy prime ministers, namely Musa Hitam, Ghafar Baba, Anwar Ibrahim and Abdullah Badawi.

Musa quit from office after the 1985 Memali incident in Baling, Kedah.

Anwar was sacked by Mahathir in 1997 and later jailed for alleged abuse of powers, corruption and sodomy offences.

Abdullah, popularly known as Pak Lah, succeeded Mahathir as the fifth prime minister in 2003.

Despite retiring from office, Mahathir remained critical of Pak Lah and in 2006 wrote an open letter explaining why he criticised Abdullah’s leadership.

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