Najib: 'Great Wall of China in Kuantan' issue slander by PH

PETALING JAYA (August 28): In a Facebook post on Monday, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said that he was grateful that “one more slander” against the Barisan Nasional government has been corrected. 

"Thank God, one more slander towards the Barisan Nasional government before the 14th general election has been corrected. What was good was accused as wicked," he said in the post. 

The Star reports that his comments came in response to Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh who said the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park’s (MCKIP) infamous wall only surrounds the Alliance Steel (M) Sdn Bhd complex and not the entire MCKIP as had been previously alleged.

 Najib said he felt "vindicated".

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir had made calls for the wall — which has been dubbed "the Great Wall of China in Kuantan" — to be dismantled.

In an interview with Malaysiakini, Dr Mahathir said: "An industrial park is not a foreign country. It should be under the laws of Malaysia. Cutting out entry to local officials is not the right thing to do," he was reported as saying.

Fuziah, who is also Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, said she would inform the Prime Minister of the error.

Najib also said that Qinzhou Road had been named to commemorate MCKIP's relationship with the Qinzhou China-Malaysia Industrial Park (QCMIP) in China.

According to The Star, Najib claimed that the name had caused him to be accused of “selling out the country”, which he called “another propaganda” by the Pakatan Harapan government. 

Commenting on the 50% shares that Malaysia owns in QCMIP, which is the same percentage China owns in MCKIP, Najib said: "If we are competent in mathematics and are not always mistaken about decimal points, we would understand that owning 50% of an industrial park for a market of 1.4 billion people is better than owning 100% for only 30 million people," he said.

Najib was referring to Lim Guan Eng’s correction on Aug 13, that the amount that the Barisan Nasional government had failed to transfer to the GST Refund Fund Trust Account was RM19.248bil, and not RM17.911bil as he had previously announced, and that a mistake had been made due to a misplaced decimal point.