Apologise over 54,000 citizenship applicants from China remark or face police report, Kepong MP warns Bersatu info chief and PAS

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 — Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng today called on Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) information chief Datuk Razali Idris and PAS to retract their false claim that Putrajaya is granting Malaysian citizenship to 54,000 Chinese nationals.

Lim said the statement was slanderous, and demanded both parties apologise publicly or he would lodge a police report on the matter against them.

“The government has denied the allegations (since) the first time it appeared in virtual spaces earlier this month.

“Therefore, the statements of Razali and PAS are defamatory, full of lies and disparaging the sovereignty of the country,” he said in a statement.

He said Razali and PAS’s statements violated among others, Section 499, 504, 505 (b) and 505 (centre) of the Penal Code, Section 4 of the Sedition Act 1948, Section 233 (1) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and Section 4(1) and 8A of the Printing Machines and Publications Act 1984.

“Therefore, I give 24 hours to Razali and PAS who make such false, defamatory and malicious statements to publicly apologise and withdraw the relevant statements or I will file a police report against them,” he said.

On Monday, PAS in a Facebook post quoted Razali as urging the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to investigate the home minister, the Home Ministry and the National Registration Department (NRD) over the alleged claim that 54,000 Chinese citizens are in the process of being granted Malaysian citizenship.

Razali said that the authorities should still investigate the matter even though the allegations were denied by both the home minister and Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil.

This is despite the NRD already clarifying on August 18 that the 54,000 citizenship applications mentioned by the home minister during a press conference on January 9 referred to applicants from various backgrounds and countries, not only China.

NRD said the 54,000 applications mentioned by Saifuddin Nasution referred to the total applications received between 2017 and 2022 and it included applications from diverse backgrounds and countries of origin.

At the time, Saifuddin had said that there are 54,000 applicants out of which 7,000 have been approved while 36,000 are currently being processed.

Supporters of PAS and Perikatan Nasional are adamant that the applicants would become DAP voters.