Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad has accused Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak of having tried to bribe him.

Mahathir said this happened when Najib approached him from time to time to ask what he wanted.

“I thought it was sincere so I raised a few developmental projects for the country.

“Then later I realised he was trying to bribe me so that I will not raise the 1MDB issue,” he said in a blog posting tonight.

Mahathir said the loss of government funds was too large to ignore.

“Treating me well cannot be used as an excuse for me to shut my eyes about the loss of billions in government funds.

“That is why I continue to raise the 1MDB issue. What more when RM2.6 billion suddenly appear in Najib’s personal bank accounts,” said Mahathir.

The stinging criticism came on the eve of the Umno annual general assembly where Mahathir is expected to make an appearance.

Mahathir was responding to Najib who accused the former premier of attacking him after the government did not implement the projects he wanted including the crooked bridge to Singapore and the electrified double tracking project from Johor Baru to Padang Besar.

Mahathir said if these were the case, he would have stopped supporting Najib a long time ago.

“What I asked of Najib is for the country and rakyat. All of them were rejected but I still supported him in the 13th general election.

“Even though I said Najib should quit if his performance in the 13th general election is worse than (his predecessor) Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in the 12th general election, after he performed poorly in the 13th general election, I continued to support him,” he said.

Mahathir said he only stopped supporting Najib after the 1MDB issue boiled over.

Najib has denied wrongdoing and that the RM2.6 billion in his personal bank accounts was from a middle eastern donor.

‘Malaysian PM should not possess RM2.6b’

Mahathir said never in the history has a Malaysian prime minister possessed so much money.

“The Malaysian prime minister should not possess RM2.6 billion, no matter for whatever purpose,” he said.

Mahathir also rubbished Najib’s refusal to disclose the donor who purportedly made the donation, stating that it was merely a ploy to cover up where the money came from and how it was spent.

He added that BN had performed several folds better than Najib in the general election even without the RM2.6 billion.

Mahathir also poured cold water on claims that Bank Negara was aware that the massive deposits went to Najib, questioning why was the central bank’s investigation papers on 1MDB were rejected when they were sent to the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

He added that it would be more convincing if Bank Negara is allowed to make its findings public.

Mahathir also noted that he was being attacked for his criticism, with some accusing him of also having lost government money.

However, Mahathir said he only approved government investments when he was prime minister and was not directly involved in them, like the way Najib was in 1MDB.

Furthermore, he said even if government investments failed, all numbers were recorded in the books and did not go missing.

Mahathir also rubbished that his attacks against Najib were tarnishing the country’s image.

“If anyone damaged the country’s image, it is Najib as the country’s image was fine before this,” he said.