Local Government and Housing Minister Dr Sim Kui Hian accused the DAP leaders of going overboard with their attacks against him “without basis and without verifying the facts beforehand”.

It was reported that Michael Kong, special assistant to Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen, had accused Sim of “wrongfully taking control” of funding for food assistance allocated for Padungan, Batu Lintang, Pending and Kota Sentosa totalling RM800,000.

Chong had also reportedly accused the state and federal governments of depriving people staying in opposition areas of food assistance last week.

According to him, Sarawak DAP had received a number of complaints about people not receiving food assistance following the imposition of the movement control order.

In a statement today, Sim said funding for food assistance was given by the Sarawak government to all divisional disaster management committees and not to the assemblymen’s service centres.

“However, Sarawak DAP leaders continued to make accusations against me through social media and local daily newspapers to disparage my character, and accused me of abusing my position by misappropriating and misusing those funds.

“I had said on several occasions that our top priority has to be focusing on beating the pandemic.

“Our healthcare and enforcement frontliners have to risk their lives every day to achieve the goal and there is no room for any such untruthful politicking or false accusations,” he said.

Sim said he had instructed his lawyers to issue legal letters to those who had been making alleged defamatory statements against him.

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