JOHOR BARU: Incumbent Bukit Batu assemblyman Arthur Chiong has been called out for spreading misinformation, when he claimed that he did not receive allocations from the state government, says Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi.
The Johor caretaker Mentri Besar said Chiong, who was recently announced as the candidate to defend the state seat, would likely not have retracted the claim had he not been called out over it.
"How did he think he was not going to get caught? There are videos everywhere. This is the digital era. Whatever you say can be used against you if it is a lie.
"There are digital footprints. So, when he made that claim and it was later corrected, he had no choice but to apologise. What else could he do?
"But if people had not known about it or if he had not been caught, then the lie would have continued to spread," he said during a special interview with local media at his official residence in Saujana here on Wednesday (June 17).
On Sunday (June 14), Chiong apologised and retracted remarks he had made the night before claiming that he did not receive any allocation from the Johor state government.
Commenting further on the matter, Onn Hafiz also defended incumbent Skudai assemblyman Marina Ibrahim for openly speaking up on the matter.
"Why is Marina being punished simply for speaking the truth?
"We do not just provide allocations to Marina. We provide allocations to all opposition assemblymen. There is no favouritism.
"But that is the perception certain irresponsible parties are trying to create," he said.
On Tuesday (June 16), Marina, who had previously announced that she would not be defending her seat, posted a statement on Facebook saying that all opposition assemblymen in Johor received the same allocations from the state government.
"If you want to criticise your opponents, then criticise them. Criticise their policies, the way they work or the way the state is managed.
"But if you go astray and make claims that are not true, then that is wrong," she said.
