Former finance minister Lim Guan Eng said accusations that the previous Pakatan Harapan government would have endangered lives by failing to provide adequate funds during the Covid-19 pandemic, was "out of line" and "untrue".
He said such claims by former ally turned rival International Trade and Industry Minister Azmin Ali was a political ploy.
"He (Azmin) said that during Harapan rule, I, as finance minister, did not provide enough funds for tackling Covid-19.
"That is slander and a lie as (the truth) is the opposite. The government informed the Health Ministry and the minister at the time (Amanah’s Dzulkefly Ahmad) can attest that the government provided all resources necessary to ensure frontliners could carry out their duties as well as possible," he told a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.
This comes after Azmin, formerly a cabinet minister himself with the previous government, said Harapan placed lives at risk during the health crisis as Lim was unwilling to allocate the funds needed.
The former PKR leader went so far as to claim more people would have died had Harapan stayed in power.
Azmin, who recently joined Bersatu, made the statement yesterday when campaigning for Perikatan Nasional in Perak.
The Harapan government's collapse was triggered when numerous rogue MPs led by Azmin pulled out of the then-ruling coalition in late February.
Together with the Bersatu faction aligned with president Muhyiddin Yassin, they formed the current PN government with Umno, PAS and other parties.
Lim today called on Azmin to provide proof to his claims instead of making “wild accusations”.
“I feel what is alleged by Azmin is clearly a political attack which has crossed the line as it is not in the least bit true, (especially) as the Harapan government decided we will give all financial support needed.
“(The accusation) is not fair as Dzulkefly carried out his duties well,” Lim added.
'Harapan already allocated funds'
For the record, work on the initial RM20 billion stimulus package, the first part of the RM295 billion economic package ultimately announced by the PN government to tackle the coronavirus and revitalise the economy, began under the Harapan administration.
It was announced by Dr Mahathir Mohamad who was serving as interim prime minister at the time following the collapse of the previous government after his resignation.
Also for the record, many had praised the manner in which Dzulkefly handled Malaysia’s early response to the global health pandemic, with calls for him to be reappointed minister in Prime Minister Muhyiddin’s new cabinet even by Umno leaders back in March.
Dzulkefly currently leads the 'Selangor Task Force For Covid-19'.
Aside from Azmin’s remark yesterday, Shahidan Kassim (BN-Arau) also questioned Harapan’s handling of the crisis during the Dewan Rakyat session today.
“What has Harapan done when Covid hit the country? Back in 2019... there were all sorts of fairytales on the problems faced by the country but in the two months before PN took over government, what did they do?
“In fact, the tourism minister then said only healthy tourists were here, unhealthy tourists did not come... which does not describe maturity in administering the country.
“Harapan should have taken steps in January to solve the problem,” Shahidan said when debating the Temporary Measures for Government Financing (Coronavirus Disease 2019 [Covid-19]) Bill 2020.
Meanwhile, speaking at the same press conference today as Lim, Dzulkefly expressed disappointment at Azmin’s “falsehoods” and then recounted the number of Covid-19 cases he oversaw during his stint as health minister.
He said as at Feb 24, the country registered 24 positive cases, of which 22 recovered and two remained in non-intensive care wards.
“There were no deaths until we left Putrajaya.
“...Azmin’s accusations are evil, extremely irresponsible, despicable, and regrettable and must be exposed to the people,” said the Kuala Selangor lawmaker, who holds a PhD in toxicology.
Malaysia recorded its first two Covid-19 related deaths on March 17. To date, the country has recorded 9,267 positive cases (of which there are currently 183 active cases) and 125 death as of yesterday.
However, it must be noted that Dzulkefly presided over the early days of the pandemic, with no new cases reported for 11 days until Feb 27 when the second wave of infection began and prior to the nationwide movement control order (MCO) in March.
He, too, told reporters today that allocations had been planned by the then-government to handle the outbreak.
“Health director-general (Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah) said during the Harapan (administration) that Covid-19 was handled well and early preparations were why there was no rise in the pandemic (locally) until the UDA and Sri Petaling (tabligh) clusters,” Dzulkefly claimed.
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