KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12 — Former Finance Ministry official Tony Pua today acknowledged that he may have offended a certain gaming businessman with close links to former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad when Pakatan Harapan was government.
But the Damansara MP, who had been branded “arrogant” and alleged to have overstepped his boundaries as political secretary to finance minister Lim Guan Eng back then, said that even in hindsight, he would not have acted differently now if he were able to turn back the clock.
Responding to Dr Mahathir’s recent remarks that he received many complaints from the Chinese Malaysian business community about a certain political secretary to the finance minister, Pua said he was still clueless on the identity of the complainants till today.
He hazarded a guess that the complainant could be a certain Chinese businessman who once lobbied the Finance Ministry and Dr Mahathir to extend his gaming business licence, but claimed that he had not interfered with any ministerial decisions on the matter.
“I can only speculate that the likeliest person was someone who wrote to the Prime Minister in 2018 to extend his gaming concession by 30 years, in exchange for an RM150 million ‘licence fee’ to the Government.
“This request was then forwarded to Lim for his consideration as the Finance Minister. 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’m 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,” the DAP politician said in a statement.
He said that the businessman was finally able to persuade Dr Mahathir to approve the gaming licence extension in early 2020 at double the fee offered, but added that the deal never went through as the PH government collapsed a month after that.
“If this was indeed the ‘Chinese’ businessman who complained about my ‘arrogance’, then I would plead mea culpa. But I will not have done anything any differently,” Pua said.
He maintained that throughout his 20-month stint as Lim’s political secretary, he encountered too many people who made countless business proposals.
He stressed that he tried to avoid meeting those who had vested financial interests and only wanted to secure government contracts through direct negotiations instead of open tender.
“I would also avoid meetings where I could be seen as compromised, if the party is already participating in a government tender, or if they are making dubious proposals — like 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.
“I don’t know if Dr Mahathir would define these traits as being ‘very arrogant or behaving ‘like a Minister’. I don’t know of a Minister who schedules near-hourly meetings in cafes or coffee shops, or running around town ensuring that my Minister’s programmes are run smoothly and effectively,” he said.
Pua’s latest rebuttal is the third he has made since some news agencies leaked contents from Dr Mahathir’s newest book Capturing Hope: The Struggle Continues for a New Malaysia that narrates the ex-PM’s account of the rise and fall of the PH government.
Previously, Pua acknowledged that he might have earned the ire of Dr Mahathir by meddling with the latter’s “business friends”.
Capturing Hope: The Struggle Continues for a New Malaysia is available for sale starting today.
