GEORGE TOWN — The Penang Barisan Nasional (BN) has chided state government leaders for having twisted Prime Minister Najib Razak’s statement regarding the reinstatement of the state’s free port status.

State BN information chief Tan Cheng Liang said state executive councillor Chow Kon Yeow had misled the people by withholding the full text of the prime minister’s reply in Parliament on the matter recently.

Yesterday, Chow was quoted as saying that the prime minister had said that since Penang had been placed within the Principal Customs Area, the concept of a free port no longer existed.

“Actually, the prime minister qualified his statement by saying that the federal government was ready to consider a proposal to reinstate the free port status to boost the state’s economic growth with support of the people of Penang,” Tan told reporters here today.

She claimed that the opposition distorted the prime minister’s statement to show that the BN government’s inability to implement the proposal.

The Penang BN launched a month-long signature campaign to get 1.5 million residents to support a proposal to accord Penang a free port status.

-Bernama-