KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 — Malaysia has decided not to host the 2020 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) but is open to staging the event sometime in the future, said Foreign Minister .

He noted that owing to the request made by some Commonwealth members, hosting CHOGM 2020 was indeed considered by Malaysia.

"However, in the end, Malaysia had decided against it,” he said in a statement today.

Anifah said that for one, Malaysia was to host the APEC Summit and its related meetings that year.

Further, he said, there were other members of the Commonwealth which had expressed interest to host CHOGM 2020.

"For the sake of the warm relations that we have with these countries, Malaysia had chosen to step aside and instead would prefer hosting CHOGM sometime in the future,” the minister said.

The statement also served to rebut a Sarawak Report article which, he said, tried to take advantage of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s absence at the CHOGM meeting in London.

"Let me underscore a point that is evident to all — no sane political leader in a democratic society will leave their countries less than three weeks before general elections for any meeting abroad,” Anifah said.

He said the article titled ‘UK calls on Malaysia to accept election monitoring and condemns fake news and boundary law’ betrayed signs of desperation due to the well-spring of support for the government and the utter disarray of the opposition.

On the delineation of electoral boundaries, Anifah underscored that the exercise was last held 15 years ago.

"The Malaysian Election Commission (EC) was merely carrying out its constitutional responsibility to review and recommend changes, every eight to 10 years, to ensure balanced populations between constituencies,” he said.

He further said that the anti-fake news bill was supported by 123 MPs including 10 from the opposition, with 64 voting against.

"This shows that while the preponderance of the duly elected representatives of the people believe in the importance of the right to freedom of expression, there must be limits on this right, and that it should not be abused to spread fake or unverified news with all the negative consequences it may bring about,” he said.

Anifah also refuted a claim concerning external election monitors, saying that the EC had invited observers from 14 countries as well as the United Kingdom-based Malaysian Commonwealth Studies Centre of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Nevertheless, he had this to say on the subject: "Malaysian democracy is to be monitored by the Malaysian electorate and the Malaysian electorate alone. To assume that anyone else has the right, ability and competence is an insult to each and every Malaysian voter.”

Anifah said Malaysian voters had continuously impressed him with a clear sense of what they wanted for themselves and their children, an innate sense of decency and an uncommon wisdom. — Bernama