PKR deputy president Azmin Ali today rubbished Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's chest thumping at the Umno general assembly about his fiscal feats outclassing opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s, presenting figures to prove his stand.

NONE Furnishing the press with gross domestic product growth numbers, Azmin ( left ) said when Anwar was finance minister, the country recorded strong growth at 8.8 percent in 1992, 9.9 percent in 1993, 9.2 percent in 1994, 9.8 percent in 1995, 10 percent in 1996 and 7.3 percent in 1997 when the economic crisis began.

In contrast, under Najib, who also holds the finance minister's portfolio, the country's GDP shrunk by 1.5 percent in 2009, with subsequent growth of 7.2 percent in 2010 and 5.1 percent in 2011.

"Since becoming finance minister, Najib's economic performance has never once outdone Anwar's achievements," Azmin told a press conference at the PKR headquarters today.

"Anwar managed the economy to record growths of nine to 10 percent in his time as finance minister.

"However, Najib has taken the economy in the other direction in the first year and it remains in a poor condition despite neighbouring countries, such as Indonesia, growing rapidly," he added.

Anwar was finance minister from 1991 to 1998 and Najib has been finance minister from mid-2008 to the present.

‘Debt performance, too, is unmatched’

Similarly, Azmin said Najib had also failed to outdo Anwar in managing the country’s debt.

He said that when Anwar was finance minister, he had turned the country’s deficit of 0.8 percent in 1992 to surpluses of 0.2 percent, 2.3 percent,  0.8 percent, 0.7 percent and 2.4 percent in subsequent years from 1993 to 1997.

The country began to record a deficit of 1.8 percent in 1998 - the year Anwar was sacked - and had been in the red ever since, he said.

Azmin added that under Najib, the country experienced a deficit of 6.7 percent in 2009, 5.4 percent in 2010 and even though it fell to 4.8 percent in 2011, the total national debt has spiked five-fold from Anwar’s time.

“After Anwar, all of Umno’s finance ministers have taken an approach of owing money to support the country’s excessive and imprudent spending while revenue remained stagnant, therefore Malaysia is now grappling with a debt problem,” he said.

‘Petronas squeezed’

Azmin said to make up for this excessive spending, BN had milked national oil producer Petronas of billions and this milking is at its highest level since Najib took over.

During Anwar’s tenure, he said, Petronas had consistently contributed RM3.1 billion in dividends to the government annually, but when former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was finance minister, it increased to RM9.4 billion in 2004 and RM11.0 billion, RM18.0 billion and RM 24.0 billion in subsequent years.

This amount peaked under Najib’s stewardship where the amount hit RM30 billion in 2009 and had remained at that level ever since, he said.

“I  am confident that the rakyat are wise and can differentiate these figures. The country’s leadership should be focussed on helping the economy based on objective figures and not try to twist facts about the country’s economic performance...” he said.

The press conference also saw Semporna Umno Wanita division vice-chief Kalasahan Hadi Abdul Salam announce her resignation from the party, of which she has been a member for eight years, and her entry into PKR.

She cited dissatisfaction with her division chief Shafie Apdal, who is also an Umno vice-president.

NONE

 

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