PUTRAJAYA, Nov 8 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad told former law minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim today to show evidence that he has billions after the latter said Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) decision makers were billionaires.

"I’m not sure whether he has the evidence and maybe he can show how many billions I have,” said the prime minister after launching Poh Kong’s ‘Gold Note of Hope’.

Zaid blogged yesterday that PH’s 2018 election manifesto was written by idealists who promised a welfare state and said the problem was that the "real” decision makers in the government were not socialists or supporters of the welfare system.

Instead, he said, they were billionaires and towkays who were in line with Dr Mahathir’s economic philosophy and liked selling assets and favoured creating more wealthy businessmen.

"That’s his opinion,” Dr Mahathir said in response today. "I don’t have to agree with everybody. People are free to make their own opinion in this country.”