In a post on X, Mahathir said that he respected Lim as the head of DAP and a coalition member.

Lim was then the DAP secretary-general, while Bersatu was part of Pakatan Harapan.

“I never threatened to sack Guan Eng. That is a blatant lie.

“The only minister I dropped was Maszlee Malik, (the) minister of education.”

Yesterday, Lim claimed that Mahathir had threatened to sack him thrice in front of other Cabinet members.

Lim, who is now the DAP chairman, claimed the threats were made over his insistence on fulfilling the coalition’s manifesto, including reducing the North-South Highway toll by 18%.

Lim also claimed that Mahathir had opposed his efforts to implement open tenders for government procurements and to grant development allocations to MPs.

“Despite his opposition, I managed to lobby a majority of Cabinet members to agree with these proposals, much to his chagrin,” he said.

Lim had accused Mahathir of having “selective memory”, as evidenced in a forthcoming book by an ex-aide to Najib Razak.

He said former political consultant Romen Bose’s book Shattered Hopes showed that Mahathir’s memory of his second stint as prime minister was “riddled with half-truths and falsehoods” .

Mahathir, in his response today, said: “Even if promises are made in a manifesto, the Cabinet cannot become just a rubber stamp.”

He said, for example, the manifesto proposing abolition of tolls seemed “simple”. “But expressways have to be maintained and sometimes additional lanes need to be constructed.”

“Maintaining an 800km expressway is costly. If no tolls are collected, the government or the company would not be able to maintain this first-class expressway.”