Najib: PH approved international balloon fest, too

The Putrajaya international hot air balloon fest was launched by then Federal Territories minister Khalid Samad on Feb 23. The event, scheduled for March, was later postponed. (Twitter pic)

PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister Najib Razak has poured scorn on the previous Pakatan Harapan government over the Sri Petaling Mosque tabligh convention and said PH had no intention of stopping any other public event at the time.

As an example, he cited the PH government’s decision to proceed with the Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, announced by federal territories minister Khalid Samad on Feb 23, and scheduled to be held on March 19-22.

Najib said the fact remained that the PH-led government was to blame for the largest Covid-19 cluster in the country, which stemmed from the tabligh gathering on Feb 27 to March 1.

The gathering had since caused infections among a total of 1,950 people.

Najib’s remarks came after an exchange of words between the current and former health ministers and a former deputy health minister about who was responsible for the tabligh gathering being allowed.

Health minister Adham Baba said his predecessor Dzulkefly Ahmad had failed to stop the gathering, but Dzulkefly responded by saying the responsibility lay with the home minister then, Muhyiddin Yassin, who is now prime minister.

Dzulkefly’s former deputy Lee Boon Chye said earlier today that the virus had spread from delegates from affected countries who had come to Malaysia for the tabligh gathering. “We (health ministry) would not have known there would be participants from foreign countries joining the gathering, otherwise, we would have stopped it,” Lee said.

But Najib pointed out that Khalid had launched the hot air balloon event a week before the PH-led government fell. The fiesta was expected to draw over 200,000 people before it was postponed on March 6.

“Was the event also going to bar foreigners? It seems that Khalid is right, the PH government had no issues in approving the tabligh event with 16,500 participants,” said Najib, referring to a tweet by Khalid in defence of Dzulkefly.

Khalid had said there was “no issue” about the gathering being approved on Feb 12, as “the first (Covid-19) wave was under control”. - FMT