TONY Pua today asked Dr Mahathir Mohamad to name the “Chinese businessman” who had complained about the former’s “arrogance”.

The Damansara MP said this was so that he could “respond, explain or exonerate” himself.

“Like it or not, I spent the last few days pondering over which particular ‘Chinese’ businessman in Dr Mahathir’s circle of business friends I might have offended, who complained that I was ‘very arrogant’. To be honest, not many come to mind,” Pua said in a statement today.

“Perhaps it might be better for Dr Mahathir to disclose who this complainant might be and let Malaysians at large be the judge of his accusations.”

Pua, who was political secretary to the finance minister in the Dr Mahathir administration, was responding to the former prime minister’s claims in his new book and subsequent media conversations.

Dr Mahathir said Pua had threatened an Indonesian developer as well as spoken on behalf of the government when he had no authority to do so. 

Pua had previously responded to these two allegations.

Later on December 7, Dr Mahathir told the media that he had been informed by other people in business, including a Chinese man, that Pua was “very arrogant” and had “behaved as though he was the minister”.

Pua today said he could only speculate that that the Chinese businessman to whom Dr Mahathir referred was someone who had written to the prime minister in 2018 to extend his gaming concession by 30 years, in exchange for a RM150 million “licence fee” to the government.

He said this request was forwarded to then finance minister Lim Guan Eng for his consideration.

“The proposal was rejected outright.  I never met this particular businessman nor was I involved in the decision-making on the proposal.

“I made it a point to avoid the businessman as far as humanly possible. I knew for a fact that he was lobbying certain other ministers for support even after the initial proposal was rejected. 

“The fact that I was the political secretary and burdened with the myth – yes, it’s a myth spread by BN cybertroopers – that I was the ‘power broker’ behind the finance minister, I could very well be deemed ‘very arrogant’ for being extremely evasive,” he said.

He added that the businessman eventually succeeded in persuading Dr Mahathir to approve the deal in early January 2020, by doubling the licence fee offered.

However, the PH government collapsed a month before the deal could proceed.

“If this was indeed the ‘Chinese businessman’ who complained about my ‘arrogance’, then I would plead mea culpa.  But I would not have done anything any differently,” he added.

Pua said that he was only doing his job as the political secretary to the finance minister.

“Those who worked with me would know that my meeting schedules often ran to midnight, nearly seven days a week.

“I would listen and bring the proposals back to the minister for consideration. Many excellent proposals were sourced via these meetings.

“I would however avoid parties who were only interested in securing contracts via direct negotiation with the government. I would also avoid meetings where I could be seen as compromised – if the party was already participating in a government tender or if they were making dubious proposals – like for fancy cryptocurrencies.

“As a matter of habit, I tend to decline lunch or (sumptuous) dinner invitations from tycoons and businessmen because they take too much time, and there’s probably too much small talk,” he said.