Muhyiddin: PM's claims I spent RM500m on ads are 'malicious lies'

Muhyiddin Yassin has accused Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of attempting to smear Perikatan Nasional’s image by claiming that his past administration led by the coalition had spent RM500 million on promoting the government, including its Covid-19 initiatives.

The PN chairperson said that such claims were a lie and pointed to a written reply by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Sabah, Sarawak Affairs, and Special Functions) Armizan Mohd Ali.

“I want to emphasise that this is a lie because the written answer of Armizan in the Dewan Rakyat on Feb 14, 2023, stated that the PN government only spent RM181,752.20 on branding.

“In comparison, the Madani government led by Anwar who ruled for less than a year at that time had spent RM489,216,” said Pagoh MP Muhyiddin. 

It should be noted that Armizan’s reply did not address the issue of Covid-19 initiatives.

Yesterday, Anwar told the Dewan Rakyat during Question Time that the Muhyiddin and Ismail Sabri Yaakob governments had spent RM500 million and RM200 million respectively for publicity and advertising contracts between 2020 to 2022.

“RM500 million was spent by Pagoh and RM200 million by Bera,” said Anwar, who called the spending excessive. 

He said that most of the publicity spending was made under the Prime Minister’s Office’s budget, with large sums channelled at promoting the two prime ministers, neither of whom took office directly after an election.

Muhyiddin in his rebuttal claimed that Anwar’s statements were unreasonable and contradicted statements by his minister.

“I was running the country when Covid-19 hit. As I recall, the use of large billboards, television, and radio at that time was to convey messages about the dangers of Covid-19, information related to the Economic Stimulus Package, and help for the people.

“Although at the beginning of this year, on April 29, Anwar promised ‘not to waste the country’s money’ by putting up big billboards, today, Madani’s giant billboards are plastered all over the place, everywhere.

“Therefore, Anwar’s statement citing such a large amount of money allegedly spent by the government under my leadership for promotional purposes is a wild accusation to tarnish the image of PN in the eyes of the people.

“The careless accusation is another episode of Anwar’s lies that are clearly malicious,” added Muhyiddin. - Mkini