PETALING JAYA: The press secretary of Anthony Loke has asked if national broadcaster RTM is sabotaging the federal government, after the speech of his boss at the 2019 Chinese New Year Open House was not broadcast.

Lim Swee Kuan said he would lodge an official complaint with Minister of Communications and Multimedia Gobind Singh Deo immediately on the matter.

"Not a single word of the speeches of Mentri Besar Negri Sembilan YAB Dato' Seri Hj Aminuddin Harun and Transport Minister YB Anthony Loke Siew Fook were broadcast!

"What is this if this is not sabotage? Heads must roll over the highly possible sabotage against the government administration.

"I demand an explanation from state-owned RTM," he said in a Facebook post on Sunday (Feb 17) night.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali joined several thousand Malaysians at the national-level Chinese New Year open house at Dataran Centrio in Seremban 2.

Also present were Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and several Cabinet Ministers.

The event - jointly organised by the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry and Negri Sembilan government - is the first under the Pakatan Harapan government.

Meanwhile, Gobind said he has asked RTM to look into this.

“I have asked RTM to give me a report on this and once I have the report, I will do what’s necessary,” he told reporters after launching the first Terragraph Asian pilot project in Penang.

The Puchong MP said he had asked RTM to list its standard operating procedures (SOPs) in relation to requests for the station to cover an event, the Malay Mail reported.

“I will need to look at the terms of coverage, what were the SOPs before I can comment further on this,” the portal quoted him as saying.