KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak has wasted no time in hitting back at Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who earlier today accused Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's government of being a cruel dictatorship.
Najib, in a posting on his Facebook page, took a swipe at Dr Mahathir, saying that it was ironic that a dictator was calling others by that label.
He then went on to cite a list of things that had been done by Dr Mahathir during the latter's 22-year administration when he was in office for the first time.
"A dictator calls someone else a dictator, Mr ISA (Internal Security Act ) calls someone else a dictator," he said in an obvious reference to Dr Mahathir's usage of the now abolished draconian act to arrest and lock up a number of individuals, especially politicians who were deemed as a security threat for their outspokenness, without trial.
Najib also listed how the Attorney General, Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) chief, Chief Judge, Bank Negara governor and Inspector General of Police had been replaced by Dr Mahathir.
The jailed former prime minister said all of his (Najib) and his family's bank accounts had been frozen, and forfeiture of his assets and properties done even before any charges were filed against him after he was ousted as prime minister.
Najib said he and his family were also prevented from leaving the country at that time while roadblocks were mounted on the alley in front of his house.
While he did not provide details, the 70-year old former Umno president was obviously referring to incidents which happened after Barisan Nasional (BN) lost the 14th General Election and Dr Mahathir came back to power for the second time.
Following that, Najib was investigated for his role in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal and he was prevented from leaving the country before he was eventually charged.
Najib said he and his entire family had been slapped with dozens of absurd charges including an astronomical claim by the Inland Revenue Board.
"Do as Dr Mahathir did to Najib and his family.
"Only then can you be worthy of being called a dictator," said Najib in the posting which garnered about 4,900 likes, 737 comments and 199 shares within 45 minutes of it being uploaded.