PETALING JAYA: Anifah Aman shot back at Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein over criticism of his claim regarding the encroachment of Chinese vessels into Malaysian waters.
Last night, Hishammuddin said he was referring to West Capella when responding to Anifah’s retort.
This evening, however, Anifah pointed out that West Capella was never mentioned at any point during Hishammuddin’s initial press conference where he claimed there had been no further encroachment by Chinese vessels in Malaysia’s waters since he took over at Wisma Putra.
“Therefore, it was unbecoming, on the part of the minister, to state that I’d misunderstood what he had said when he himself should be blamed for not being clear and transparent in his statement,” he said in a statement.
Hishammuddin was reported to have said last night that if Anifah knew the context of his statement, “he would not have misunderstood and reacted the way he did”.
Anifah had yesterday said Hishammuddin was either “in denial or ignorant” when he made such a claim.
Anifah, who was foreign minister from 2009 to 2018, said it was only in April that a flotilla of Chinese enforcement vessels was sighted accompanying a Chinese survey vessel in Malaysian maritime areas.
He said he was also reliably informed that Chinese coastguard vessels were sighted in the vicinity of Beting Patinggi Ali in May, June and July.
Anifah went on to “congratulate” Hishammuddin over his performance as the foreign minister for his ability to strengthen bilateral relations within 100 days — “a job that I as a foreign minister for over nine years did through travelling, meetings, negotiations, lobbying other foreign ministers, prime ministers, presidents and royals to strengthen relations on various aspects”.
“I salute the new foreign minister for being able to do what I was not able to in just 100 days via telephone and video calls only.”
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