ONE wonders if Economic Minister Rafizi Ramli is serious about engaging in the much-awaited live debate with Bersatu Youth chief Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal or he is just pulling a fast one on the latter.
This is because the Machang MP had wanted to debate on the controversies surrounding the selling of Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) shares to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) which is a wholly owned BlackRock subsidiary while Rafizi has counter-proposed the theme of “print money” instead.
“Alright @wanfayhsal – let’s debate. The issue to be debated is how to stimulate the economy by printing money,” Rafizi who is also the Pandan MP and PKR deputy president responded to Wan Fayhsal’s challenge on the X platform.
Baiklah @wanfayhsal – jom kita debat.
Isu yang perlu dibahaskan:
Bagaimana merancakkan ekonomi dengan mencetak wang.
Kenapa perlu dibahaskan:
Sebab ini idea paling bernas mengenai ekonomi pernah datang dari PN.
Walaupun debat live ni menyebabkan kos yg besar kpd penganjur… https://t.co/8dzf5K5j2f
— Rafizi Ramli (@rafiziramli) August 9, 2024
“Why this (print money) needs to be debated? Because this is the most brilliant economic idea ever came from PN (the Perikatan Nasional coalition).
“Although this live debate incurs huge costs for the organisers (airtime, etc), I am willing to discuss with RTM, Astro and others for the sake of the Malaysian economy, 🤣”
Recall that Wan Fayhsal had suggested in November 2020 during his tenure as deputy youth and sports minister in a podcast organised by business radio station BFM that Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) print more money and directly hand the cash to Malaysians – an idea that has been widely criticised as “inflation-inducing” and displaying his “economic naivete”.
For more context, Wan Fayhsal had earlier issued a challenge “to any UMNO-DAP leader to for a live debate in any neutral venue to uncover more facts that have been distorted” by that faction.
This prompted former Pejuang youth chief Dr Abu Hafiz Salleh Hudin to snub Wan Fayhsal for having brought poison pen letter to the Dewan Rakyat and even performed under par during the Prime Minister’s Question Time (PMQT) session in addition to having rejected Rafizi’s invitation for a debate.
In his rebuttal, Wan Fayhsal claimed that the said PMQT session is merely a debate platform for the Prime Minister’s own satisfaction (syok sendiri) while Rafizi’s invitation was for his Yang Bakar Menteri (YBM) podcast as opposed to a live debate.
“I therefore challenge you (Rafizi) to debate the MAHB-GIP-BlackRock issue LIVE like Anwar versus Shabery Cheek or Biden vs. Trump,” asserted Wan Fayhsal.
For curious minds, the Anwar versus Shabery Cheek debate which was telecast live by RTM on July 15, 2008 featured PKR’s de facto leader and current PM Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and the then information minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek.
The hour-long debate entitled “Form the Government Today, Reduce Fuel Prices Tomorrow” took place at the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka in Kuala Lumpur. – Aug 10, 2024
