KUCHING, April 21 — Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian today said he has instructed his lawyers to issue legal letters to Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen and the party’s other state leaders over allegedly defamatory claims against him about the allocation of food assistance fund in Kuching district.
He said they have gone overboard with their persistent, repeated and allegedly malicious attacks without basis and without verifying the facts.
“They have accused me of wrongfully taking control of food assistance funds allocated for Padungan, Batu Lintang, Pending, and Kota Sentosa in a total sum of RM800,000,” Dr Sim, who is also Batu Kawa State Assemblyman, said in a statement.
He said had explained that all those food assistance funds were allocated by the state government to the respective Divisional Disaster Management Committees (DDMCs) throughout the state, not to the service centres of the state assemblymen.
Despite the explanation, he alleged that the DAP leaders knowingly continued to make such false accusations and repeated the same against him through both social media and the local dailies with malice or malicious intent to disparage his character and untruthfully accused him to have abused his position by misappropriating and misusing those funds.
“I had said earlier on several occasions that in view of the intensity of battling the Covid-19 pandemic at our own doorsteps, our top priority has to be focusing on beating the crisis by ensuring all our fellow Sarawakians that our home can one day be safe like before, free from the disease.
“As such, our healthcare and enforcement frontliners have to risk their lives every day to achieve the above goal.
“There is simply no room for any such untruthful politicking or any false accusations,” Dr Sim, who is also Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) president, stressed.
