KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak has accused Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today of alleged slander for claiming that a solid wall had been erected around the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park (MCKIP).
After he was accused of “selling the country” with the alleged barrier as proof, Najib said he felt vindicated after Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh refuted Dr Mahathir’s claim and would be meeting the prime minister to explain the real situation.
“Thank God, one more slander towards the Barisan Nasional government then before the 14th general election has been corrected. What was good was accused as wicked,” he said in a Facebook post tonight.
Fresh from his official trip to China last week, Dr Mahathir had said he intended for the solid wall around the MCKIP to be dismantled, questioning the need for a wall that obscured the activities taking place within from public view.
He said the park occupied Malaysia’s sovereign territory and was subject to all the country’s laws and regulations, in response to allegations that local officials were barred from entry.
But Najib said Fuziah has explained that the wall only goes around the Alliance Steel factory, and not the whole park for safety reasons.
He also said Fuziah has admitted that many of her constituents appreciate the job opportunities offered in MCKIP, and do not wish for the jobs to be affected.
Najib also refuted claims that a road in the park named Qinzhou Road was proof that Najib had “sold the country”, pointing out that it was named to commemorate MCKIP’s relationship with its twin city Qinzhou China-Malaysia Industrial Park (QCMIP) in China.
He pointed out that there even exists a Kuantan Avenue in QCMIP — which is wider than the Qinzhou Road here.
Najib also said that Malaysia owns the same percentage of shares in QCMIP as China in MCKIP, but the former park is three times bigger than the latter and produced over RMB10 billion (RM6 billion) worth of goods last year.
MCKIP was opened in 2013. Kuantan Pahang Holding Sdn Bhd is the nominal majority owner, while a subsidiary of the Guangxi Autonomous Region authority owns 49 per cent.
“If we master mathematics and are not always mistaken about decimal points, surely we understand that owning 50 per cent of an industrial park for a market of 1.4 billion people is better than owning 100 per cent for only 30 million people,” Najib said, in a veiled reference to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng’s recent mistake.
