Najib: ‘Thank you Pakatan for destroying the country’s economy’
by Theleaders-Online | March 9, 2020 6:49 am
PUCHONG: Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak today ‘congratulated’ the former Pakatan Harapan government for putting the nation’s economy in turmoil.
In a Facebook post today, Najib said that he had warned the Pakatan government in the past not to depend on oil revenue too much, as the commodity’s price may fall below USD$30 per barrel in the global market.
“But no one listened to me. Today, oil prices have dropped sharply,” he said.
Over the weekend, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia failed in their negotiations on how to regulate global oil output in order to stabilise its prices.
In retaliation, Saudi Arabia flooded the world market today with crude oil, triggering a massive drop of oil prices to USD$30 per barrel.
In the Budget 2020, former Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng tabled the budget, with an estimate that oil prices would be over USD$60 per barrel.
Training his guns against Pakatan, Najib said that he had implemented various policies during his premiership to reduce dependency on oil revenue, such as the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
“And I told them not to abolish GST but they did it anyway. I also told them to keep our budget deficit in check.
“Plus, I told them not to offend our trading partners and don’t put your hands in Petronas’ RM170 billion reserves.
“But they did mess with everything. I was left frustrated,” he said.
Najib then listed down Pakatan”s economic transgressions, which were:
-Abolishing GST, which reduced the country’s revenue and allowed the ‘black economy’ to flourish.
-Increase the country’s fiscal deficit from 0.6% to 3.4%, which caused the national debt to rise to RM140 billion, and the national debt ratio increased from 48.7% to 53%.
The Pekan MP said that during his premiership, he had worked to reduce the nation’s fiscal deficit for eight years, which was increased within three years of Pakatan rule.
“I also reduced our dependency on oil revenue from 41% to 12% but Pakatan increased it to 33%.
“They also sold off our national assets, which was generating huge revenue to our nation’s coffers,” he said.
Najib lamented that with the current economic uncertainty, added with the coronavirus outbreak, Malaysia’s economy may fall even further in the near future.
“Our ringgit will depreciate further and Bursa Malaysia will plunge.
“Thank you Pakatan for destroying our economy with your short-term populist ideas which made no economic sense,” he said.
By S Jeevita
Source URL: https://theleaders-online.com/najib-thank-you-pakatan-for-destroying-the-countrys-economy/