Kepong MP questions Umno-PAS silence over Hisham 'big brother' comment
DAP's Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng has questioned why Umno and PAS are being silent after Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein referred to China as a "big brother", adding that if his party colleagues had made the same mistake, they would be heavily criticised.
"Although Malaysia and China have good diplomatic relations, the title as such should not be used, especially on the international stage.
"When the Pakatan Harapan government ruled, it was often attacked by the top leadership of Umno and PAS with titles such as defender or admirer of communists when cooperating with the Chinese government, even at a diplomatic capacity.
"But none of the Umno and PAS leaders have questioned the actions of Hishammuddin. What is the basis of opposing the communists or has it been a show all this while?
"If such a statement was issued by any DAP minister such as Anthony Loke or Lim Guan Eng when Harapan ruled, they would definitely have suffered severe attacks," Lip Eng claimed in a statement today.
He speculated that under such circumstances, there might even be calls by certain parties to deprive the MPs of their citizenship and possibly de-register DAP because of supposedly communist elements.
"Hishammuddin has explained on his Twitter page that big brother was a familiar title that was addressed personally to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and not about bilateral relations between Malaysia and China.
"Despite that, Hishammuddin's visit at that time was an official and recorded diplomatic ceremony in front of the world media, rather than a leisure programme. His visit was not privately funded. Instead, it was funded by the government, so he has to follow the established diplomatic protocol," Lip Eng said.
Yesterday, former foreign minister Anifah Aman told Hishammuddin to admit his faux pas in making the reference instead of compounding the matter by disputing it.
PKR president Anwar Ibrahim also criticised Hishammuddin's comment, saying that it may have set the country's foreign policy back by 25 years.
"It signals to the international community that Malaysia's orientation as a neutral nation is changing under the Perikatan Nasional government," he said.
The opposition leader also called on Hishammuddin to apologise to the rakyat and withdraw his remark. - Mkini
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