KUALA LUMPUR - A veteran newsman thinks that had the government used part of its USD44 billion reserves to settle 1MDB’s debts, the ringgit might not have been devalued so badly, the stock market would improve and foreign direct investment (FDI) would flow in. “The economy would improve and employment would increase. But that amount was lost trying to protect the ringgit while 1MDB’s financial problems festered.”
Reports say Bank Negara did for the first time, in September, try to slow down the ringgit slide, noted former New Straits Times Group Editor-in-Chief Kadir Jasin in his latest blog posting.
“Under Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s watch, the ringgit has become Asia’s worst performing currency. I am not making this up. The Bloomberg news service said it. Najib should sue Bloomberg,” he remarked.
The Prime Minister has a penchant for taking his critics to court, said Kadir. “He should also now take The Economist to court for reporting things that could sabotage our economy.”
In its November 14 issue, said Kadir, the Economist magazine noted: “Malaysia’s banks have lots of foreign liabilities and its households have the highest debt-to-income ratio of any big emerging market; its cushion of foreign-exchange reserves looks thin and its current-account surplus is forecast to shrink.”
If Malaysia was a morally upright country, added Kadir, the Prime Minister would have resigned voluntarily for causing such a mess and for not denying that he once had RM2.6 billion in his personal accounts. “But morality and conscience appear to be thinly spread in this supposedly Islamic country. “
Kadir was reiterating in his latest posting that the people want the Prime Minister to resign.
“His critics did not cause the political crisis that led to the loss of confidence in the economic management of the country.”
“The culprits are also Najib’s ‘cari makan’ Ministers, the 1MDB, his RM2.6 billion ‘Arab donation’, the arrest and prosecution of his detractors and the perpetuation of the climate of fear.”
The people he appointed to help him administer the country are making things worse by their ineptitude and disregard for professionalism, charged Kadir.
In a March 11 written parliamentary reply to Selayang MP William Leong Jee Keen, recalled Kadir, Najib admitted that Malaysia’s external debt had tripled under him, from RM196 billion in 2003 when Mahathir Mohamad handed power to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and he (Najib) became Finance Minister, to RM740 billion in the third quarter of 2014. “Never mind the ‘new definitions’. Debt is debt.”
Government debt has hit the ceiling of 55 per cent of the GDP, warned Kadir. “Again, I am not making up stories. This was what Najib said in the same reply in Parliament.”
The Federal Government’s debt stood at RM582 billion or 54.5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), just 0.5 per cent away from the self-imposed 55 per cent ceiling, noted Kadir.
“Of the total, 97.1 per cent or RM566.1 billion was domestic debt, while the balance of RM16.8 billion or 2.9 per cent was in offshore loans.”
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