PETALING JAYA • Malaysian Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng is considering filing defamatory suits against those who continue to query his education credentials. The parties include the media and other politicians
Reading from a press statement yesterday, Mr Lim's political secretary Tony Pua said the minister's lawyers had advised that Mr Lim reserve his rights to file defamatory claims against the newspapers that continued to print lies to diminish and question his position, stature and credibility.
Mr Lim's comments came after his accounting qualification became the latest to be scrutinised following a series of alleged false education credentials clouding several leaders from the ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition.
Malaysian Chinese Association president Wee Ka Siong on Sunday questioned Mr Lim's credentials as an accountant, citing information from Monash University's website that Mr Lim obtained his Bachelor of Economics degree in 1984.
"I have no doubt over his degree qualification. However, I wonder how he became a qualified professional accountant in 1983 before he even graduated?" Datuk Seri Wee said in a Facebook posting.
Mr Lim's website says he graduated from Monash University, Australia, with a Bachelor of Economics degree and was a qualified professional accountant by 1983.
Mr Pua, in answering Dr Wee's question, said Mr Lim graduated in 1983 and that the Australian academic calendar ends in November. Mr Pua said universities have their own conventions in naming their degrees, adding that "having a 'Bachelor of Economics' degree does not mean that Lim didn't study accountancy".
Dr Wee, who is a Johor MP, also wanted to know how Mr Lim's qualification as a "qualified professional accountant" was accredited. "Was it by a local or foreign institution? Which country accepts an economics graduate to pass as a 'qualified professional accountant'?"
Mr Pua yesterday distributed copies of Mr Lim's certificate of membership of the Australian Society of Accountants, which said Mr Lim was admitted as a provisional member of the society on Feb 21, 1984.
THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
