KUALA LUMPUR: The government has refuted any involvement in the removal of former minister Khairy Jamaluddin's TikTok posts discussing BlackRock and Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB).
Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil clarified that neither his ministry nor the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) issued any directives regarding Khairy's social media content.
"There were no instructions from me or my deputy (Teo Nie Ching), and the MCMC took no action either," Fahmi told FMT.
According to MCMC, TikTok removed Khairy's posts based on its community guidelines, emphasising that the decision was entirely the platform's right.
"The MCMC was not involved in these actions," he added.
Khairy recently posted TikTok notices detailing the removal of two video clips criticising the MAHB privatisation involving US-based investment firm BlackRock.
He questioned the transparency of the deal and expressed doubts about BlackRock's expertise in airport management compared to MAHB.
The MAHB transaction has drawn critical observation due to BlackRock's alleged connections to Israel and its military.
The deal involves Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), acquiring a stake alongside the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Khazanah Nasional (40 per cent), and EPF (30 per cent).
In his initial TikTok post, Khairy raised transparency concerns, citing Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan's comment that the deal was too advanced for effective Cabinet objection.
He argued this contradicted the government's pledge to uphold good governance, particularly with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim serving as Finance Minister and Khazanah Nasional Bhd chairman.
In a subsequent video, Khairy questioned GIP's airport management credentials, highlighting that GIP-owned airports handled approximately 60 million passengers collectively in 2023, significantly fewer than the 119 million passengers served by MAHB-owned airports last year.
