Muhyiddin blames ‘ungrateful’ fallout on Chinese media

By Neville Spykerman, The Malaysian Insider

Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin today lashed out at the Chinese vernacular press for “twisting” his words and portraying him in a bad light.

He denied calling the Chinese ungrateful. The DPM claimed what he had said was that the Chinese were unappreciative.

The deputy prime minister denied he had used the word “ungrateful” to describe the community in the wake of the ruling party’s defeat in the Bukit Gantang by-election in an interview published on Sunday in Mingguan Malaysia.

“If they don’t know Malay, we can send them to school,” said Muhyiddin, who is also the new education minister.

The interview published on Sunday was translated in the Chinese press and there had been widespread backlash from the community with politicians from MCA , Gerakan and DAP united in their criticism against the “ungrateful” remark.

“What I actually said was that the community looked as if it didn’t appreciate Barisan Nasional despite its best efforts during the by-election.”

Muhyiddin said he was only giving his assessment of the by-election in which BN lost further support from the community but claimed his statement was taken out of context.

He said non-Malay support had declined by a further 50 per cent in Bukit Gantang and he was speaking in the context of trying to understand the reason.

Muhyiddin also denied his statement was reflective of the Chinese sentiment throughout the country adding no analysis has been done to support such a claim.

He was speaking to the press today after receiving the handover of the education ministry from Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussin.