PARLIAMENT One of the more unflattering jibes often levelled at Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is his supposed lack of testicular fortitude, which is often described with the crude equation to eggs such as depicting him as ‘roti canai tanpa telur ’ ( roti canai without eggs).

However, BN lawmaker Abd Latiff Ahmad (BN-Mersing) disagreed with this.

On the contrary, he described Najib as “ roti canai bertelur " ( roti canai with eggs) since he had the courage to implement the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which safeguarded the nation from the volatility of the world economy.

"The former finance minister came out with GST, but lacked the political will to do it.

"Only Pekan (Najib’s parliament constituency) did it, he made roti canai bertelur ," he added after intervening during fellow BN lawmaker Noor Azmi Ghazali’s debate on the 2016 Budget.

"I agree with you. Some roti canai bertelur , some are roti canai tak bertelur ," concurred Noor Azmi.

"Pekan (Najib) has the courage and wisdom to make a good and fair decision, which is in line with the pulse of the people,” he said.

Rakyat should be happy and thankful

The rakyat should be happy and thankful as the steps taken by the prime minister, especially listing medicines as zero-rated items, will make their life easier, Noor Azmi said.

"The rakyat should be happy and we should say alhamdulillah (praise be to God).

"The nation is lucky to have GST, as Malaysia, which depends hugely on exports, are exposed to the volatility of world economy and chaos in the Middle East, and drop in prices of commodities," he said.

Meanwhile, Noor Azmi defended that public debts to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio is acceptable.

"Malaysia sits at 63rd place out of 164 countries. We are in debt, but we are able to repay it.

"When people start working, they buy houses and cars, they are in debt. Is it wrong?

"Only animals have no debts," he said, adding that lots of countries are in huge debts and yet perform well economically.