WITH former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad claiming that the previous Pakatan Harapan Government made various achievements under his stewardship, one of his many protégé turned nemesis poured cold water on the former’s assertion.
“Yes, the Pakatan Harapan made ‘great achievements’. As a result, Mahathir collapsed his own coalition Government.
“Mahathir said that Pakatan managed to tackle the nation’s financial and debt crises. My goodness! This must the work of our former Finance and Economic Affairs Ministers feeding the former fake news and fairy tales,” said former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, in a Facebook post.
In an interview yesterday, Mahathir said that the short-lived Pakatan Government made great strides in developing the nation, under his stewardship.
“Even though the DAP had 42 MPs and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) had only 13, both parties had six ministers under my Cabinet, to reflect equal partnership.
“And I managed to get Cabinet’s approval to take a series of action, including resolving the nation’s financial crisis, settle debts and getting rid of politicians helming our Government linked companies (GLC).
“I also managed to get corrupt civil servants to step down,” the nonagenarian was reported saying.
Hurling brickbats at Mahathir, Najib listed out his former mentor’s “achievements” during his 22 months stint as Malaysia’s seventh Prime Minister.
“Here are Pakatan’s ‘accomplishments’ when they were in power. Our stock market dived, even beating Zimbabwe.
“Our debt ratio soared from 48.7% to 54.4%, as the Pakatan Government increased our debt by RM140 bil. Our gross domestic product (GDP) for 2019 was the weakest in 10 years, prior to COVID-19.
“Our deficit for those two years was the highest since Barisan Nasional’s rule and Malaysia’s foreign direct investments (FDI) rate was the lowest among Asean nations,” he said.
Najib added that capital outflow from 2018 to 2019 was at RM25 bil, as opposed to capital inflow of RM11 bil in 2017.
He also said that Khazanah Nasional Bhd’s net asset value also fell from RM116 bil to RM73 bil, after the Pakatan administration embarked on an asset stripping mission.
“And Petronas’ ratings were downgraded twice after our national oil company’s cash reserves of RM176 bil fell to RM84 bil,” Najib remarked.
On that note, the Pekan MP told Mahathir that prior to Pakatan’s win, Malaysia was not suffering from any economic crisis, with an average GDP growth of 5.9% annually and exports surge of 18.9%.
He added that the previous BN administration also managed to reduce the nation’s deficit and debt ratio to 2.9% and 48.7% respectively.
“The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) also managed to reward contributors with high dividends compared to 20 years ago and our stock market was among the most bullish in the world, ending at 1,896 before the 14th General Election.
“So, it was only after Mahathir took over that our economy went downhill. The Malays and Malaysians won’t forget easily,” Najib stated. – Feb 6, 2021.
