JB Umno Youth wants MM Lee to retract remarks on IDR support

The Straits Times, July 9, 2007


JOHOR BARU - UMNO Youth Johor Baru wants Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew to retract his remarks which it said accused Umno Johor of not supporting Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi and the Iskandar Development Region (IDR).

The unanimous decision by the JB wing of the youth movement was made after its delegates' meeting yesterday supported an emergency resolution on the matter.

'The Johor Baru division of Umno Youth which met today has taken the decision to press Lee Kuan Yew to retract that statement,' its chief, Mr Khalid Mohamad, was reported by Bernama news agency as saying.

The JB youth wing also expressed its full support for Datuk Seri Abdullah.

In an interview with Singapore's Berita Harian that was published on June 30, MM Lee said the IDR will put pressure on Singapore, just as Shenzhen in China rivalled Hong Kong in business.

But it was his other remarks on the IDR that Malaysian politicians and the media had focused on, although the remarks were mistranslated.

In the Berita Harian interview which was conducted in English, he had said: 'It is one thing for the opposition party PAS to knock the Malaysian Prime Minister down, but when Umno leaders, especially from Johor, hit out in the same vein, potential investors from Singapore must seriously ask themselves when these attitudes will change, and how welcome their investments will be.'

The words 'knock...down' was translated by the Malay press with a word that could mean 'topple' when referring to leaders, raising much heat in Malaysia.

Umno Johor's information chief Puad Zarkashi on Friday criticised MM Lee, saying party leaders in Johor supported Datuk Seri Abdullah and the IDR.

The IDR is a 2,217 sq km new economic zone in South Johor that Malaysia wants to be its new engine of economic growth.