PERIKATAN Nasional (PN) chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has told Pakatan Harapan (PH) and UMNO politicians to stop pointing fingers and make “false accusations” just to cover up the weaknesses of a government that “still doesn’t seem to have any ideas how to resolve the rakyat’s problems”.
In a lengthy Facebook post, the former prime minister went on to dismiss accusations that his administration spent over RM530 bil when the PN coalition was in power, insisting that he had not misappropriated any funds when he was in the top post.
He said that while he was unsure how this figure came about, he posited that it may refer to stimulus packages announced when he was prime minister, which totalled RM530 bil.
However, he noted that a considerable bulk of the RM530 bil in the stimulus was non-fiscal and was assistance in the form of Employee Provident Fund (EPF) withdrawals (RM145 bil), reduction in EPF contributions (RM10 bil) bank loan moratoriums (RM180 bil) and government guarantees for corporate loans (RM80 bil).
“It is not possible for me to misappropriate these funds as these are individual or bank monies which did not involve government spending,” he stressed, adding that he had no control over how the funds were spent.
As for aid that did involve government funds, the Pagoh MP stressed that not a single sen went into his account.
“It does not make sense that aid for the people which go directly into their accounts can be misappropriated to my account,” he argued.
Muhyiddin went on to point out that any misappropriations would have also been flagged by the National Audit Department and the Public Accounts Committee, and that the Finance Ministry would have all the necessary details and paperwork.
Furthermore, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) would have been notified of the transactions of large amounts of money into his account and a probe would’ve been launched on the matter, he added.
He also stressed that he does not fear being investigated as he is confident that he did not misappropriate any of the people’s money that had been entrusted to the government to help the people.
“It seems that since becoming the government, PH is shamelessly using the police to pressure leaders who are not aligned with them,” he remarked.
“This is a clear attempt at silencing dissent. It is vastly different than their promises of institutional reforms to ensure major institutions such as the police are free of political interference.”
Having said that, Muhyiddin said he is “unsurprised” that PH had broken its promise, adding that before the 15th general election (GE15) the coalition had outright denied that they would be “cooperating with kleptocrats”.
“But post-GE15 they were the ones who had shamelessly formed the government together,” he noted.
To illustrate his point, Muhyiddin pointed to a police report lodged by Hulu Langat MP Sany Hamzan and accusations levelled by Digital Communication Minister Fahmi Fadzil as examples.
He also claimed that Fahmi had previously stated that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had ordered police to investigate PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang over claims that the premier was an Israeli agent.
Muhyiddin added the police then denied that they were investigating Hadi.
“My only advice to PH and UMNO politicians is that they should stop pointing fingers at others and cook up false accusations just to cover up the government’s weaknesses,” he said.
“You have become the government now, so act like [one]. Enough with your political play-acting because the rakyat wants to see what the government has in plans for them.” – Dec 5, 2022
Main pic credit: Utusan Malaysia
