February 07, 2011
Bernama had reported Muhyiddin as telling Lim to be fair to Penang residents of all races. — file pic
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7 — Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today denied that Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin asked him to allow Malays to do business in the state, blaming state news agency Bernama for manipulating the deputy prime minister’s remarks.
Bernama had quoted Muhyiddin as telling Lim to serve the people of Penang, regardless of race, during last night’s Barisan Nasional (BN) Chinese New Year open house in George Town yesterday.
“Serve the people of Penang, (whether they are) Malays or Chinese or Indians. (If) the Malays do business, they have problems, give them an opportunity to do business including anyone at all who want to earn a living by themselves,” Muhyiddin reportedly said.
Today, Lim said Muhyiddin had not singled out any community in his speech and warned that “certain parties” were out to stoke racial tension by putting words into the latter’s mouth.
“Even the deputy prime minister’s statement can be twisted into a racial issue. That is very, very dangerous,” Lim said in a press conference today.
He added that politics must be conducted with honour and should not descend to the level of lies and blind accusations.
At the same press conference, Lim also thanked Muhyiddin for promising to allocate future National Key Economic Area (NKEA) projects to Penang.
He had pointed out that 19 NKEA projects worth RM67 billion have been announced by the federal government so far but none had been awarded to the northern state.
Muhyiddin, however, last night dismissed the chief minister’s claim that Penang had not benefitted from development programmes drawn up by the federal government.
“The federal government implemented programmes for all states, and Penang was not excluded,” Muhyiddin had said in his speech last night.
“The BN developed Penang not because Lim is the chief minister but for everyone in the state,” he added, stressing that cooperation between federal and state governments was crucial for economic development.
No comments:
Post a Comment