KUALA LUMPUR: Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali’s visit to China shows just how hypocritical opposition politicians can be, having criticised the federal government’s investment efforts overseas, particularly in China.
Sungai Besar member of parliament Budiman Mohd Zohdi said Azmin’s visit to China could not have happened if there was no effort made by the prime minister and the federal government to improve bilateral ties with the Asian giant.
“Even though no report has been released from the visit, it is clear that whatever the Selangor government was trying to achieve was a result of the federal government’s initiatives and hard work.
“Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has done much to bring in investments, whether through government-to-government, business-to-business or people-to-people, including during his visit to China in May,” he said in a statement today.
As a result of Najib’s visit to China, said Budiman, the value of investments have hit more than RM30 billion and had enabled the Ali Baba Group to open its distribution hub in Sepang, which he said would directly and indirectly bring returns to the Selangor government.
“However, Najib’s success in bringing in this huge investment became political capital when the opposition claimed that the government was selling the country to China.
“The opposition should not lie to the people... they use economic and investment jargon in an attempt to confuse the people and to compare their own efforts favourably,” he said.
Budiman said the people had not forgotten the opposition’s hypocrisy when the Penang state government also received loans from China to cover development costs in the state.
“What’s certain is that the opposition’s efforts have backfired. Enough with confusing the people and with the hypocrisy. Their actions are hypocritical as they reap the benefits of the efforts (of the federal government) that they have criticised,” he added.