KUALA LUMPUR (CNN) -- Malaysia's opposition leader says a government move to ban Hollywood's latest animated musical "The Prince of Egypt" will hurt the country's image. Lim Kit Siang said the ban by the Film Censorship Board was a "black eye" to the government's plan to turn Malaysia into a information technology superpower in the next century.

"The ban ... will be sending out the worst possible message to the world that Malaysia does not have the mind set yet to become a IT nation, despite the globe-trotting efforts of the Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to sell the futuristic Multimedia Super Corridor," said Lim. The MSC is a zone to the south of Kuala Lumpur that is being developed as Asia's answer to Silicon Valley. Officials on the censorship board said they have banned DreamWorks Studio's "The Prince of Egypt," but declined to say why. The film was banned last week in the Maldives on grounds that its portrayal of Moses was offensive to Islam.