Multimedia and Communication Minister Salleh Said Keruak has turned the tables on Dr Mahathir Mohamad with regard to suing those who make allegations.

He was responding to the "simple argument" that since The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has made certain allegations against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, he should sue the publication.

Based on this argument, he added if Najib refused to sue then that can only mean the allegations are true and the prime minister is guilty.

However, Salleh noted how former WSJ editor Barry Wain claimed Mahathir had squandered an estimated RM100 billion during his the 22-year rule.

"According to the inflation calculator, RM100 billion, say in 1990, is worth RM225 billion today.

"In his book 'Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times', Wain writes that the Mahathir administration, which took office in 1981 with the slogan, 'clean, efficient, trustworthy', was almost immediately embroiled in financial scandals that 'exploded with startling regularity'.

"By the early 1990s, says Wain, cynics remarked that it had been 'a good decade for bad behaviour, or a bad decade for good behaviour'," he added in a blog post.

Salleh pointed out that Mahathir never sued Wain so the allegations remain.

"And because Mahathir did not sue Wain does this mean the allegations are true? But then if Najib refuses to sue WSJ , Mahathir says that can only mean the allegations are true," he said.