That is not true at all - the Malaysian Chinese business community is firmly behind the leadership of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

That's the verdict of the two biggest Chinese-based parties in the ruling coalition. The parties - MCA and Gerakan - totally dismissed claims by former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad that the Chinese business community was taking their investments away.

Mahathir last week blamed Abdullah for mismanaging the country's economy, saying that he had been told by many Chinese businessmen that they would rather invest in China than domestically.

Responding to this, MCA vice-president Dr Chua Soi Lek said that on the contrary to Mahathir's claims, the support from the Chinese business community had grown stronger.

He added that feedback from MCA's Malaysian Corporate Council indicated that the Chinese businessmen was standing united behind all government policies.

"As a result of the meeting between the council and the prime minister, which we arranged recently, Abdullah personally pledged to solve the problems that had been raised in stages," he was quoted as saying in Bernama .

"They say the prime minister is a leader who is willing to listen to whatever grievances and appeals the people have. I am confident Abdullah's leadership will convince Chinese businessmen to continue to support the Barisan Nasional (BN) government led by him," he added.

Chua said the business community worldwide and not just in Malaysia was facing the pressures of competition as a result of globalisation and trade in a borderless world.

Business expansion

Meanwhile Gerakan deputy president Dr Koh Tsu Koon said it was untrue that local Chinese businessmen were taking their investments to China.

On the other hand, the Penang chief minister said, this merely showed that the Chinese businessmen were actually expanding their businesses abroad.

He said that they were just adhering to Mahathir's advice for them to venture overseas.

"Since the early '90s, local Chinese businessmen had expanded to China at the urging of Mahathir himself for Malaysians to get involved in projects abroad," Koh was quoted as saying by Bernama .

He added that it was not just the Chinese business community that was venturing overseas, especially in China. Even Malay and Indian businessmen were investing in India and other countries in Africa, he added.

For the past six months, Mahathir has been attacking his hand-picked successor's three-year-old administration, accusing him of economic mismanagement, corruption and nepotism.

On Sunday, both the leaders met for two hours - on what was to be a reconciliation meeting - but soon after that meeting, Mahathir renewed his attacks.

New projects

Yesterday Abdullah responded to the new wave of criticisms, likening them to ' doses of venom '.

He rejected Mahathir's claims that Malaysia's economy was going down with no new projects implemented in two years.

The prime minister said that projects under the Ninth Malaysia Plan had just entered the seventh month and some are being implemented.

"Tun says it has been two years whilst the ninth plan had just entered the seventh month. We (the government) are implementing development projects... before the middle of 2007, we'll complete the projects for the people.

"Currently, minor projects are being actively carried out. There are lot of jobs for Class 'F' contractors now, I know," he said.