FORMER Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak questioned how the Government came to the conclusion that a full lockdown would cost the nation RM500 bil.
“Is it true that a fresh lockdown would cost the nation RM500 bil? Even if you use the argument that we lose RM 2.4 bil daily with a new lockdown, this RM500 bil figure translates to 208 days. Nobody is asking for a full lockdown that long.
“It’s just that 21 days of strict closure will provide maximum leverage for us to contain COVID-19 as its incubation period runs for 14 days.
“And when the coronavirus is contained, our frontliners will have a breather and the economy will recover faster,” he argued on his Facebook page.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said he decided against a full lockdown claiming it would cost the nation RM500 bil to support and prop up the economy.
He also said that full lockdown would cause more people to lose jobs and affect economic recovery.
“We spent RM340 bil last year and it’s not a small sum. We used 20% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) to help the people,” Muhyiddin said in special joint interview with RTM and Bernama.
Short-term pain vs long-term suffering
Dismissing Muhyiddin’s argument, Najib said that the strict lockdown during MCO 1.0 cost the nation RM50.4 bil, if the prime minister’s figure of RM 2.4 bil is taken as the truth.
Going by that calculation, he added that Malaysia only used 3.57% of the fross domestic product (GDP) instead of 20% mentioned by Muhyiddin, as Malaysia’s GDP hovers around RM1.4 tril annually.
“But bear in mind the RM50.4 bil is from the GDP, not Government expenditure,” the Pekan MP stressed.
On imposing strict lockdown for another 21 days, Najib said it would not cost the Government much, arguing as follows:
- Interest free loan moratorium does not cost the Government
- Extension of i-Sinar and i-Lestari withdrawals (half of the previous rate) does not affect Government expenditure
- One-off aid worth RM1,000 to four million recipient translates to RM4 bil
- One-off aid to small traders worth RM1,000 including taxi drivers and e-hailing servicemen translates to RM 3 bil
On that note, Najib stated: “The real problem is that the Government had borrowed, sold assets and took out nearly RM115 bil since beginning of this year.
“But it is important to go through temporary pain in order to get better and more sustainable results, compared to enduring long-term suffering without any positive outcome, compounded with higher death toll.” – May 24, 2021.
