Provocative Actions Of A Few Will Not Ruffle Najib, Says Muhyiddin

KUALA LUMPUR -- The provocative actions of a few individuals during Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's meeting with Malaysians in London recently will not affect the confidence of the Prime Minister in continuing to interact with the people, said Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Deputy Prime Minister said as a statesman, Najib was an open-minded person and would not feel threatened by such circumstances.

"He (Najib) knows anything can happen (like what happened at the meeting), but the majority of those present welcomed him except for two or three malicious people who want to disrupt the function," he told reporters after opening the annual general meeting of the Bumiputera Manunfacturers and Services Industry Association of Malaysia, here Thursday.

At the "An Evening with the Prime Minister" event in London on Tuesday during Najib's two-day working visit to the United Kingdom, two or three out of the 1,500 people gathered there tried to disrupt the function by heckling Najib.

Muhyiddin, however, said although the act was rude and did not show respect for the nation's number one leader, the government would not arbitrarily take action every time someone spoke out against the government.

On another matter, Muhyiddin said Tenaganita executive director Irene Fernandez was ill-informed about the actual situation in the country when she allegedly made wild allegations that Bangladeshis workers were poorly treated in Malaysia.

Questioning her motives for making such allegations, the Deputy Prime Minister said the government had never prevented foreign workers form returning to their own countries if they felt Malaysia was not safe and did not have laws to protect them, as claimed by Irene.

"However, I believe 99.9 per cent of them disagree with Irene Fernandez...so what is Irene Fernandez's motive in denigrating Malaysia," he said.

In fact, he said, at his meeting with Bangladesh's minister in charge for the country's citizens working overseas yesterday, the latter had asked the Malaysian government to lift its freeze on the intake of Bangladeshi workers.

"If Bangladeshi workers are poorly treated here, why would the Bangladesh government ask Malaysia to lift its freeze on hiring workers from the country," he said.

Irene in a recent interview with Indonesia's Jakarta Post newspaper is alleged to have claimed that Malaysia was an unsafe place for foreign workers and that it did not have a legal framework to protect them.

-- BERNAMA