‘Dr M courting Japan like BN courted China’

KUALA LUMPUR: Umno has taken a dig at Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s trip to Japan and questioned if the government was facing internal bickering over the foreign minister and other ministerial posts.

In a statement by its strategic communications unit, Umno said Dr Mahathir was attending the 24th Nikkei Conference as a “salesman” to attract Japanese investments.

It said this was not surprising as Dr Mahathir had been accused of “selling Malaysia to Japan” when he led the country as the fourth prime minister.

“When he was in power then, there was already talk about this as there were many mega projects involving companies and funding from Japan.

“The only difference is that there was not much news about it then as there was no Internet and because the Internal Security Act (ISA) was used against his critics.”

Umno said Dr Mahathir had accused the Barisan Nasional government of selling the country to China.

It questioned how his efforts to attract Japanese investments were any different from what the previous administration had done by courting China.

The party also questioned why the government failed to name foreign, works and youth and sports ministers despite being in power for a month.

“It is strange that the government is taking so much time to fill these posts, as though it is facing a crisis in picking the candidates among its component parties.

“The people must surely be wondering what our foreign policy is going to be as any government would normally lay this out first when forming its cabinet.

“It is all the more perplexing that the prime minister has gone to Japan without a foreign minister accompanying him.”

Umno said Dr Mahathir’s administration had been transfixed on executing “political revenge” against former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, 1Malaysia Development Bhd and Malaysia’s external debt, which the government claimed had been manipulated.

Umno claimed that the government’s decision to appoint Tommy Thomas as attorney-general and certain quarters’ attempts to undermine the royal institution had caused Pakatan Harapan to “fall into its own trap”.

“The government is now seen as one that is filled with hypocrites and those who are good at twisting facts.

“They have their own ratings agency and are acting as bodoh sombong (arrogant fools) by not acknowledging official figures recognised by the World Bank and other internal agencies,” Umno said, adding that Malaysia had become a “free for all” country or a “cowboy” nation, where the rule of law only applied to certain people.