“Sell assets and you may lose votes, Pakatan”
PUCHONG: A backbencher has warned that the government’s plan to sell nation’s assets in a bid to settle debts would cause the people to vote Pakatn Harapan out in the next general election.
“If the Pakatan Harapan led government under the leadership of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad sells Khazanah Nasional’s assets to pay up debts to the point that our nation loses its assets, the people who are observing will punish Pakatan in the coming general election,” said Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Abdul Karim of PKR via a statement published on Facebook.
Yesterday, the prime minister announced that national fund company, Khazanah Nasional would sell assets that are not useful to raise funds that will be used to pay off the nation’s debts. He however added that the option is still being studied.
Hassan added that Pakatan had previously criticised the BN government under the leadership of Datuk Seri Najib Razak for raising debts due to corruption and mismanagement which led to BN’s defeat in the 14th general election.
He questioned whether the Cabinet ran out of ideas on ways to settle the debts.
He also called upon Dr Mahathir to raise this issue in parliament.
“I request the Prime Minister and the Cabinet to raise this important matter in the parliament when it is in session on 7 Oct 2019.
“Give MPs from both side of the divide – backbenchers and opposition – to give their ideas and thoughts on how to handle the issue of national debt repayment which is beyond RM 1 trillion due to the financial and economic mismanagement coupled with graft and power abuse of the former government.”
As for an immediate measure, Hassan called for a immediate freeze on the sale of assets belonging to Khazanah and other government owned companies.
