Taking to Facebook today, Najib said the former Barisan Nasional government provided monetary aid and free tyres to taxi drivers, and saw that they had their own licences and not rent them from “crony companies”.

“(But) today, many taxi drivers feel regret as they realised they were cheated.

“Grab was not banned as they had hoped for and special aid for taxi drivers as was done during my administration was stopped,” he said, referring to the e-hailing service.

This follows comments by Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Raja Kamarul Bahrin that Najib could have spoken up on behalf of taxi drivers in the past instead of doing so only last week.

Najib had urged Putrajaya to consider providing taxi drivers with People’s Housing Project (PPR) units because they often had unstable incomes and found it difficult to own houses.

In response, Raja Kamarul told FMT the Pakatan Harapan government had no qualms considering applications from taxi drivers for PPR units, but questioned why Najib himself had not helped them in the past.

Najib again explained what he said about not banning e-hailing services after meeting with Big Blue Taxi Facilities Sdn Bhd founder Shamsubahrin Ismail and 10 taxi drivers on Wednesday.

He said that when he was prime minister, he noted that most Malaysians were all for using e-hailing service providers like Grab or Uber, and even worked with these companies for side income.

“I concluded it was difficult to ban Uber and Grab because it only required a smartphone app,” he said following his meeting with Big Blue Taxi, which is one of the biggest taxi operators in the country.

“I also had to balance the needs of Malaysians who benefited from e-hailing services and what the taxi industry needed.”

He said the plan was to regulate e-hailing services and help other taxi drivers.