GEORGE TOWN: MCA should stop making wild insinuations about the economic ties between China and Malaysia, as such claims do not help foster goodwill nor promote the effort from both sides to enlarge trade relations.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said that making absurd claims about both sides simply does not help, especially when there is an ongoing US-China trade war.
“It will definitely have an impact as there are some parties wanting to take advantage by painting a picture of dissent here. Some people who want to run down China may want to also portray us as having problems with China.”
Malaysia is not taking any sides in the trade war, Lim stressed.
“We want to remain neutral here,” he said after visiting a family whose home was razed to the ground last Wednesday in a pre-dawn fire in Air Itam here.
Lim and the Air Itam MP Wong Hon Wai, together with other government agencies, have pledged up to RM10,000 to help the family in their time of need.
Lim said that he was disappointed to hear of claims by the MCA that the Malaysian government was not friendly towards China companies.
“It is wrong as China is our largest trading partner.”
Responding to MCA’s president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong’s challenge on why there was a need to appoint a property agent to sell the Malaysian consulate building in Hong Kong, he said that the ministry was transparent about the sale.
“We now practice open tender. All government assets would be sold via open tender. So as part of the process, we also need to hire an agent to ensure that the government fetches fair value for its properties unlike the previous government.”
Lim claimed that Wee pretends not to know the details, and he has become a specialist in twisting the facts and making baseless claims.
Lim said that the reserve (ceiling) price fixed by the Government was RM1.6 billion for the building, but Wee does not seem to know the difference by supposedly citing that it was HK $1.6 billion.
Lim alleged that Wee was clever to make statements based on false pretenses.
Wee could not be reached for comment.
