Ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad had described Damansara MP Tony Pua as arrogant and not business-friendly in his latest book released last year.
Talking about this in his speech, Pua questioned if rejecting proposals or avoiding direct negotiations with those former Barisan Nasional's cronies contractors were considered as "not business-friendly".
"(During my tenure) A lot of tan sri, datuk seri came to MOF very regularly. They tried to get appointments with me, and very often, I would find every excuse possible to 'siam' or 'lari'.
"They have direct access to my minister, but they want to talk to me in the hope that I will buy into their ideas and talk to my boss for their proposals. That's their modus operandi during BN's time.
"Sometimes when the proposal was useless, and we didn't accept it, they said Tony Pua 'arrogant'. Sometimes the proposal was workable, but we said we have to do open tender, their faces became 'black'," he said.
