Political will is a must when you’re a Gov’t leader, Puad tells Tengku Zafrul

A GOVERNMENT leader should have the political will to do the right thing even if the individual may not have a political background, said Umno supreme council member Datuk Puad Zarkashi.

“Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz gave a lot of excuses on why the Government cannot continue with the i-Sinar and i-Lestari withdrawals.

“He said the previous approval was given due to unprecedented time. So, with (the current) rising COVID-19 infections and death now, is that not unprecedented to him?

“That is why a Government leader must possess political will despite not having political experience,” he said in a Facebook post.

For the latest total lockdown, the Government decided not to allow anymore withdrawals from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) saying they needed to protect old-age savings for contributors.

Tengku Zafrul also only allowed targetted loan moratorium instead of a blanket approval, claiming the Government may have compensate the banks if such a decision was made again.

However, many have shot back saying the moratorium was not about forgiving debts but merely postponing payment period to the future.

Making simple things difficult

Puad said that it was disappointing that the Government was doing everything in its power to continue suspending the Parliament instead of using every available resource to help the struggling masses.

He added that without political will, leaders like Tengku Zafrul would only become a “facilitator” to vested interests, not the rakyat.

“People like our finance minister will make simple things look so difficult but at the same time, make difficult things easy to handle.

“Probably, this is why the people prefer to meet politicians to address their woes, in order to circumvent unnecessary red tapes,” the former deputy minister stated.

On the EPF withdrawals, Puad said that contributors know that it was their retirement savings, adding it was not like the former wants to withdraw money from it daily.

“The Government is the one who is treating EPF like a bank. Yes, it is their retirement fund but does it really matter when they are starving right now?” he queried.

On the loan moratorium issue, Puad reminded Tengku Zafrul that it was the Government who issues banking license to the financial institutions.

“Tengku Zafrul should learn to have people’s interest at heart, not bankers,” he remarked. – June 7, 2021

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