Parti Pribumi Bersatu chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamed and president Muhyiddin Yassin should look at themselves in the mirror first, before criticising the Forest City project in Johor, Umno supreme council member Mohd Puad Zarkashi said.

He said the duo had been trumpeting their achievements in bringing in foreign investments through the manufacturing sector without selling land, but this had threatened national sovereignty in a different way.

“It is the manufacturing sector that is the source of the influx of millions of foreign workers, to the extent that it has become uncontrolled and causing other social problems.

“Just look at the existing factories. Who is in it? Most of them are foreign workers. Their involvement in criminal activities can also threaten national sovereignty,” Puad said in a statement issued through the Special Affairs Department’s (Jasa) news bulletin service Jasa Update.

Puad is also the Jasa director-general.

According to a parliamentary reply by the home minister on Nov 6, 2014, there were 85,029 index crimes committed between January and August that year, of which 9,496 (11.2 percent) involved foreign nationals.

Previously, Mahathir and Muhyiddin had claimed that large tracts of land around Johor Baru are being sold to foreigners - particularly Chinese investors - without restrictions, and that there would be mass migrations to take up residence in these new cities.