Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Tiong King Sing has demanded an apology from Umno Youth chief Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh.
This follows Akmal’s open call for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to take action against Tiong who was accused of abusing his position to breach security protocols at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Thursday.
“If he can be a good politician to help the country, I very much appreciate it.
“But if he doesn’t know how to be a politician, please don’t talk rubbish,” Tiong said, adding that a mark of a good politician is one who can look after the country’s economy.
“If you don’t know the whole story… what is happening, don’t just follow social media.
“I demand him to apologise to me, tell him (Akmal) that,” Tiong told Malaysiakini yesterday.
Akmal made the call for Anwar to take stern action based on a report by online portal BebasNews alleging that a minister had trespassed KLIA’s arrival hall to “rescue” a Chinese national detained under immigration custody.
The report claimed the minister did not register for a security pass and Akmal reportedly said no individuals are above the law.
Tiong, who revealed he has an access pass valid until February next year, previously admitted he was the minister implicated in the commotion at KLIA Terminal 1 on Thursday.
The Bintulu MP said he went to KLIA at around 3am together with MACC officers after he was alerted of a woman’s detention via a phone call from staff at the Consulate General of Malaysia in Guangzhou.
Tiong also claimed it was not the first time he intervened in such an incident and that his presence had exposed corruption among officials at the airport.
‘No problem in facing cabinet’
Further, Tiong said he is prepared to face the cabinet with his corruption claims that implicated immigration officials.
“Yes, no problem. I can say, I have no issue. I don’t have any agenda.
“Because first, we must give confidence to tourists from around the world to come,” he said.
Separately, Malaysian Association of Travel Agencies (Mata) president Mohd Khalid Harun congratulated Tiong on his efforts to eradicate corruption at the country’s entry points.
At the same time, Khalid echoed the minister’s call to eliminate “miscommunication” between immigration officials and arriving tourists - particularly from China - by engaging translators or multilingual officers.
“As a tourism industry player, Mata cannot accept the excuse given that a miscommunication had occurred between the tourist from China and the immigration official,” he said.
Khalid argued that the government’s failure in facilitating tourist entries could see Malaysia being left behind regional neighbours, resulting in losses for tourism industry players rebuilding their businesses after the Covid-19 pandemic. - Mkini
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