Is Muhyiddin Stupid Or Just Pretending Mp Muses After Remarks On China

---

 



A DAP lawmaker has taken jabs at Perikatan Nasional chairperson Muhyiddin Yassin's intellect over the latter's remarks on the South China Sea dispute with China.
This is after Muhyiddin (above) blasted Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim for supposedly making careless remarks that could indirectly confirm China’s claim to an area that is legally Malaysian territory.
Anwar had said Malaysia is open to negotiations following Beijing voicing its disapproval of Petronas’ operations in a portion of the South China Sea.
Commenting on Muhyiddin's criticisms, Ipoh Timur MP Howard Lee said the former premier should know better.
"I don't know whether or not Muhyiddin is stupid or pretending to be stupid, because as a former prime minister he should know that in diplomatic relations, it involves governance, meetings, and arbitration to solve or at least ease tensions in an issue, including overlapping claims on the South China Sea," he said in a statement today.
Prime Minister Anwar IbrahimLee argued that instead, it was Muhyiddin who undermined national sovereignty by criticising Anwar.
China had previously asserted that Petronas’ oil and gas exploration had encompassed international waterways - including part of its “nine-dash line” claim across the South China Sea.
The nine-dash line is a boundary that the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague determined to be without legal foundation in 2016.
Using the nine-dash line, China has continued to encroach on the exclusive economic zones of Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and the Philippines in the South China Sea.
Anwar has maintained that Malaysia would not compromise with China regarding the national oil and gas company’s explorations and said Muhyiddin should pay more attention.
Joint development agreement
Meanwhile, Lee also questioned why Muhyiddin did not criticise himself when as prime minister in 2022, the foreign minister from his same party agreed with a joint development agreement on the South China Sea.
Ipoh Timur MP Howard LeeWhen contacted, Lee said this was in reference to a joint statement in July last year between then-China foreign minister Wang Yi and his Malaysian counterpart Saifuddin Abdullah that the two build a consensus to "speed up consultations on a code of conduct in the South China Sea, and jointly build the South China Sea into a sea of peace and cooperation".
Muhyiddin was not prime minister at the time, having been ousted and replaced by Ismail Sabri Yaakob in Aug 2021.
Lee also claimed that Muhyiddin's party Bersatu had reached a consensus with the Chinese government as a result of joint negotiations.
This is believed to be in reference to Bersatu Youth Chief Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal attending the virtual Communist Party of China in dialogue with world political parties meeting last month. - Mkini

---