PETALING JAYA: PKR’s Rafizi Ramli has accused PAS of hypocrisy after the party defended the use of Chinese characters on a foundation stone for a project in Kedah.
Accusing the Islamic party of selective outrage, the Pandan MP said the defence by the PAS-led Kedah government over the use of the Chinese characters was indicative of a long-standing practice of “when they do it, it’s fine, but when others do it, it’s wrong”.

“They will come up with a thousand reasons to justify their actions, (but) in other cases, they will become defenders of the (Malay) language,” he said in a Facebook post.

Rafizi then referred to a Facebook post by PAS information chief Ahmad Fadhli Shaari, who in February, had questioned the necessity of trilingual signage at a new public market in Ayer Tawar, Perak.

On Nov 20, Kedah executive councillor Haim Hilman Abdullah defended the use of Chinese writing on the foundation stone for the Kedah Rubber City project, accusing critics of politicising the matter.

Haim said the foundation stone, which he took part in laying, also had inscriptions in Bahasa Melayu.

Today, Rafizi said the Kedah Rubber City project debunked the claim that the federal government had neglected the opposition-led state.

The former economy minister said the project was managed by the Northern Corridor Implementation Authority, an agency under the economy ministry.

It also involved an investment worth more than RM2 billion.

“They posed proudly for pictures for a project that the federal government planned and financed,” he said, referring to Haim.

“Ironically, those accusing the federal government of neglecting Kedah are the very ones taking credit for projects brought and funded by the federal government.”

Rafizi said the narrative that the federal government was neglecting the PAS-led state was pushed to cover the opposition’s failures and shortcomings.