At a virtual media roundtable ahead of the launch of his new memoir, the former prime minister said business people had turned sour towards PH due to Pua’s attitude.

“Lim felt that Najib Razak’s government was crooked and he should do away with all the contracts entered into by the previous government,” he was quoted by Malaysiakini as saying.

“But when you do that, you hurt the contractors and whoever gets their jobs, including workers, suppliers and supporting companies. So, we cannot simply do away with the contracts nor reduce the contracts by force.

“As the political secretary, you are supposed to report on the politics of the country, not go around implementing government policies.”

Mahathir claimed several businessmen had complained about Pua’s arrogance.

“(While) I cited only one example (in my new book), other business people, (including) a Chinese, told me that he was very arrogant. That’s the word they used. He behaved as if he was the minister,” he said.

He said it was not a political secretary’s place to threaten the business community.

“Because of this person, a lot of business people were against the government because they thought the government was not sympathetic to their cause,” he said.

In Mahathir’s new memoir “Capturing Hope: The Struggle Continues for a New Malaysia”, the Langkawi MP seemingly singled out both Lim and Pua, but did not name the latter.

In the book, Mahathir claimed that an adviser to the former finance minister had overreached his authority.

He said the adviser had participated in business negotiations involving the government despite not being authorised to do so, aside from claiming that he had resorted to threats.

Earlier today, Lim questioned Mahathir’s memory, calling it “faulty”. In a statement yesterday, Pua also denied Mahathir’s “false allegations”.