Tuesday July 22, 2008

No offence in Hsien Loong’s remark, says Rais

SINGAPORE: Malaysia does not take offence to a comment made by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on the country’s political situation, said Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.

“I can only say that he is making the statement based on his observation from news items appearing in dailies and television,” said Dr Rais.

He said the statement was not “value judgement” in nature, adding that Lee’s comments and observations were sincere and Malaysians should not take them to heart.

Dr Rais was speaking to the media after attending the 41st Asean Ministerial Meeting (AMM) here yesterday.

Lee, in his speech at the opening of the AMM, said that besides cross-border issues, several countries were also preoccupied with pressing domestic problems.

“Malaysia and Thailand have held elections in the last year, but both are still managing unsettled political situations,” Lee had said.

On another matter, Rais said Malaysia wanted to propagate the inclusion of “Asian values” into the Asean human rights body instead of transporting the Western interpretation as a whole.

“We have values that we can introduce as part of human rights, such as caring and respective for the elders and our way of musyawarah (consultation),” he said.