Hubris in Desperation

In his utter desperation of ousting Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd. Najib Tun Razak primarily via demonisation of the latter, Tun Dr. Mahathir resorted to lame lies to instigate the public.

It is very irresponsible to proclaim the Malaysian Government is in financial trouble and such utterance is Dr Mahathir’s poor attempt to hoodwink the simpletons.

It is to lie with the objective of erosion of confidence, by local and global business communities.

The fact is that Malaysian Government financial health is rated at A- by leading global ratings houses.

Malaysian economy is very active and productive. The healthy current account demonstrates the production and export is much higher than imports.

The exports have been recorded as 227th consecutive months of surplus over imports.

The RM1.7trillion market capitalisation of the Malaysian stock market is evidence of regional and global confidence of the nation being ‘Business as Usual’ and going concern.

If taken in comparison, the Malaysian Government is in far worse position of debt when Dr Mahathir was in charge thirty years ago.

Debt ratio against GDP was 104% (compared to 53% today) and out of that amount of debt, 64% was in foreign currency. It means servicing the debt in the future include the risk of higher exchange rate.

Then the foreign reserve stood only at USD8bil compare to over USD97bil today. Even if the production side of the Malaysian economy is completely crippled, the foreign reserve would able to sustain eight and half months of imports.

It is interesting to note that Dr Mahathir only proclaimed “PM Najib led the country into so much debt that it is insolvent”.

The fact is that, the Fourth Prime Minister simply threw a reckless lie for that. He did not even try to offer evidence to support his claim. Even if he did, he would not be able to.

The Federal Government is solvent. Every month on the dot, all 1.6mil civil servants get their pay. So does the pensioners.

Year on year, Federal Government never by operational failure unable to release the RM70odd bil in emoluments, to so many Malaysians whose livelihood dependent on the government system.

The Federal Government as the single largest paymaster provided a sound eco-system for a huge stream of local entrepreneurs to development and expand the business. Many businesses thrived for generations because of the reliability of the Federal Government to spur domestic economy with consistent and reliable expenditure.

A good example is KFC restaurant. The sound domestic economy provided the conducive market for the franchisor to open over 500 restaurants all over Malaysia.

Systematically, had the Federal Government is insolvent and unable to service the emoluments of 1.6mil civil servants and the 8-9mil other Malaysians as part of the direct eco-system, then JCorp would not able to maintain all 500 restaurants operating.

It is morally wrong for the Statesman to use his position to try and manipulate the rakyat confidence, especially for a personal vendetta to demonise Prime Minister Najib in the strategy of toppling the latter.