Opposition leaders speak with forked tongue on M'sia-China relations

KOTA BARU: International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed hit out at opposition leaders for speaking with forked tongue on the issue involving relations between Malaysia and China.
He said the allegation by some opposition leaders in trying to confuse and stir hatred among the people for the government by saying that the government was selling the country's sovereignty to China through the strategic relations was not true.
"The Selangor and Penang state governments also went to China to promote their investments. Their leaders speak with a forked tongue, saying one thing and mean another," he said.
He told this to reporters after witnessing the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between CIDB MyIBS Sdn Bhd (CIDB) and the Kelantan Housing Contractors Association (PKPK) here today.
CIDB was represented by its deputy chairman, Datuk Elias Ismail, while PKPK by its president, Hasniro Abdullah.
Also present were Public Works Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Zohari Akob and Malaysian Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) chief executive Datuk Ahmad Asri Abdul Hamid.
Kelantan is the second state after Terengganu to sign the MoU which is aimed at exposing to contractors on the technical aspects of the Industrialised Building System (IBS) , with the government aspiring to fully-use the technology by 2020.
Mustapa said China, which was now the world's second largest economic power, and Malaysia should utilise the opportunity to further enhance their relations.
He said the allegations by the opposition that Malaysia was selling its sovereignty to China was baseless because Malaysia had various institutions that protected the country's interests.
"We have the Parliament, the Senate, Bank Negara and these institutions will act to defend the country's sovereignty," he said.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak was reported as saying that the government would not allow any attempts to undermine Malaysia and China's strong bilateral ties and that the action by the opposition was merely to instil hatred among the people for the BN government. — Bernama