KUALA LUMPUR: The Prime Minister’s Office latest public relations team recruit, Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing, said he had only the greatest respect and admiration for Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, after the latter wrote a blog post about the advertising man’s advice to stop criticising Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Lim, whose LimKokWing University of Creative Technology is a global brand name, declared his respect for Dr Mahathir in a tweet, and appeared to be in in response to the retired statement’s blog post last Friday.

Dr Mahathir had chided Lim for asking him to stop attacking the current prime minister, Najib, over the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.

“I’ve absolutely the greatest respect n admiration for Tun Mahathir. Everyone who knows me knows this to be the absolute truth @chedet_cc,” Lim tweeted on June 5, the same day as Dr Mahathir’s blog post.

The former prime minister had written the entry after being stopped from speaking at a forum on 1MDB, titled “Nothing to Hide” at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur.

He wrote that he had been advised by a “friend” who was recently appointed PR strategist to the prime minister, not to attack Najib over 1MDB.

But Dr Mahathir said that in the past, this friend, had expressed concern about the policies and performance of the Najib administration and had urged him (Dr Mahathir) to do something about it.

However, he added that during a recent visit by this friend, the person appeared to have changed and urged him not to attack the prime minister instead.

Dr Mahathir wrote that this person, who is now installed at the Prime Minister’s Office, was working hard to cover the wrongdoings in 1MDB. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on June 8, 2015.