OPPOSITION leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has responded to Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s challenge to debate the issue of bailing out Sapura Energy Bhd, saying that he is ready to face off with the former prime minister “any time”.
According to the PKR president, he had issued a similar challenge to Najib to debate on the country’s economy a decade ago but he did not take it up then.
“[Najib] has chosen to challenge me early in the month of Ramadhan after failing to respond to Rafizi Ramli’s rebuttals on the issue of Sapura’s bail-out at a time when the poor and small traders are uncared for,” he said in a statement.
“I’m ready for a debate with Najib any time for the sake of the country and the people.”
Rafizi previously claimed that Najib may be “afraid” to take him on to debate over Sapura Energy Bhd.
This came after Sinar Harian reporting earlier that Najib has agreed to the debate challenge but added that the PKR vice president must bring his “boss” along.
“Both of you can be on the same stage to debate with me or you (Rafizi) can assist him (Anwar). Two versus one, no problem,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
Sapura Energy Bhd, a government-linked company (GLC), had announced a loss of RM8.9 bil last year, which Najib said was the largest for any Malaysian GLC in history.
Najib and Rafizi have been sparring back and forth on social media over Sapura after Najib had initially called on the Government to intervene by providing easy interest loans or loan guarantees to Sapura to solve its cash flow problems.
Alternatively Putrajaya could direct Petronas or Khazanah Nasional Bhd to take over ownership of Sapura seeing as to how Petronas still required Sapura’s services for its projects and had a better understanding of the sector, he suggested.
However, Rafizi said this would only benefit a “handful of elites”, adding that the money used to bail out the ailing oil and gas company could be put to better use to serve Malaysians. – April 4, 2022
