Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng has urged PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man to apologise for what he said was a false accusation thrown against him in relation to a possible cabinet reshuffle.
Tuan Ibrahim had said that Lim should be removed if there was a cabinet reshuffle, claiming an imbalance in funds allocated by the latter for various regions under Budget 2020.
In a statement today, Lim said Penang had been allocated only RM979.5 million instead of RM10 billion as claimed by Tuan Ibrahim.
He said the federal government had also set aside a total of RM125.2 million for a halal compliance hub instead of RM10 million as told by the PAS leader.
"The accusation is irresponsible, baseless and not true," said Lim.
"The amounts show a balance in the allocations, especially allocations for the East Coast states," he said.
He added such accusations were made with bad intentions to create a picture that PAS-ruled states were neglected.
Lim reiterated that Kelantan and Terengganu would be allocated RM1.5 billion and RM1.2 billion next year respectively.
"Both states will receive more funds compared to Penang," he noted.
"If Tuan Ibrahim is an ethical man, then he should apologise for making mala fide and false accusations against me.
"Does a PAS leader have the right to throw evil accusations and false accusations against me just because I am a non-Malay who is not qualified to become the finance minister?" asked Lim.
"The PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man played up sentiments when he suggested only I be removed from the cabinet.
"The sentiment game played by PAS is in line with its policy that non-Malays are not qualified to be cabinet ministers, especially for important posts like the finance minister and chief minister," he said.
"PAS now dares to implement such a policy after PAS and BN obtained strong support from the Chinese voters in the Tanjung Piai by-election," he said.
On Nov 20, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he was mulling a cabinet reshuffle and did not discount the possibility that this might take place before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit to be hosted by Malaysia in November next year.
Yesterday, in calling for Lim to be sacked as the finance minister, Tuan Ibrahim referred to the alleged imbalance in funds allocated to various regions under Budget 2020.
“For example, if Penang is allocated RM10 billion for development, only RM10 million was allocated for the halal hub.
"Lim failed in distributing the budget. All ministries complained about this,” added the Kubang Kerian MP. - Mkini
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