KUALA LUMPUR, April 10 — The head of the government’s community communications agency today warned Malaysians not to make baseless allegations to score political points, especially when it concerns the country’s sovereignty.

Datuk Mohammad Agus Yusoff, director-general of the Community Communication Department (J-Kom) in the Prime Minister’s Department, was responding to a recent YouTuber who accused Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim of selling out Malaysia to China over overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea.

"First, even if we have different political parties, don’t play with the country’s sovereignty. Accusing the PM of selling the country’s sovereignty is irresponsible, unethical, and immoral,” Agus said in a Facebook post.

Secondly, he advised government detractors to be factual in their criticism.

"The PM and all of us want the best for the country. Dissatisfied with the PM’s decision, reprimand and criticise prudently.”

Agus said he had observed many people taking to social media with emotional criticism against the Anwar administration.

He said he had not wanted to elaborate but felt the need to call out those who not only made false claims but sensationalised them on social media platforms as they were "very dangerous and needed explanations”.

He said the video titled Nak bodek China pun, AGAK-AGAKLAH BANG NON! that was uploaded yesterday under the account Papa Berry Studios was an example of the dangerous and inflammatory criticism.

The video has drawn over 500 comments, as at the time of writing.

He said the Opposition had manipulated Anwar’s April 4 statement on negotiations with China on oil explorations in an area of the South China Sea that has been subjected to overlapping territorial claims by various nations in an attempt to discredit the prime minister’s leadership.

"The PM’s statement was not to recognise the ZEE as China-owned but to defend the area as Malaysia’s territory at the negotiation table. The PM voiced the matter to China after China also stated it was claiming the same area,” Agus said.

The ZEE is the Malay abbreviation of exclusive economic zone.

"Is it wrong when the PM states he will defend Malaysian territory through the negotiation table? When negotiations are very important for us to resolve conflicts peacefully and constructively especially with China which is the biggest world power,” Agus asked.

China is claiming almost the entire South China Sea as its territory via its controversial "nine-dash line” on its maps, which cuts into the ZEE area of not only Malaysia but ogther South-east Asian countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Brunei.

Malaysia’s state oil company Petronas operates oil and gas fields within the 200-nautical mile ZEE area and has in recent years had several encounters with Chinese vessels at sea.