PETALING JAYA, June 27 — Some Malaysians hit out today at continued criticism of Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng for issuing a press statement in Chinese, amid revelations that goods seized in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) investigation were worth RM1.1 billion.

In the wake of police’s revelations that cash, jewellery, watches and handbags confiscated in recent raids on six premises linked to former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak were worth RM1.1 billion, many felt it was no longer an issue.

Twitter user Syafnan Zain tweeted a sarcastic retort saying: “Ignore how many thousand rings, how many chains, how many tiaras Rosmah Mansor has. Ignore how many hundreds of millions the seizures were worth. The important thing is we oppose Chinese writings. This threatens our sovereignty.”

And the sentiment echoed on the platform as many chimed out.

A user known as @LanPakWan sarcastically tweeted that while supporters of Najib and wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor seemed unperturbed by the numbers from the raids, a press conference highlighting the matter would have gotten their attention more if it had been done in Chinese.

Malaysian Twitter users however were not amused by the racist remarks and lashed out.

Umno members lodged a police report today against Lim, accusing the DAP secretary-general of breaching the Federal Constitution with his Chinese-language press release.

Last Thursday, Lim held a press conference and issued a written statement on the Tun Razak Exchange project in Bahasa Malaysia, English and Chinese, with the latter attracting criticism from some quarters.

The DAP leader came under more fire when he issued a press statement on Facebook on Sunday, exclusively in Chinese, to defend the initial release, despite Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad dismissing the incident as a “minor mistake”.

Lim was previously hailed for declaring last month: “I’m Malaysian, I’m not Chinese”.