Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he stands by Pakatan Harapan government’s move in being upfront about the country’s financial situation.

He previously pegged the national debt level at more than RM1 trillion and subsequently cancelled several mega infrastructure projects to cut government spending. 

These announcements had caused a dip in the market, and the government was accused of “spooking” the market with such revelations and measures. 

Today, Mahathir questioned if the market preferred to be told “lies” about the country’s economy.

“The strange thing is when we are doing something to improve the financial situation and the economy of the country, the market becomes disturbed.

“They feel uncomfortable and some of the money has flown out of the country, because (there is a) feeling in the market that something is wrong with the government.

“Sometimes I think that the market prefers to be told lies about how good we are than to be told the truth that we are to do a lot of cleaning up,” he told about 240 members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Kuala Lumpur, eliciting laughs from those present.

Among those in the audience were executives from Deloitte, West Digital, JP Morgan, AmMet Life and Citibank.

During his speech, Mahathir repeatedly assured that the government welcomed foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country and was supportive of multinational companies succeeding in Malaysia.

“We want the private sector to work closely with the government, and we would like to see that you make a lot of money.

“That is because 24 percent of that money is ours,” he said again to laughter from the audience. Corporate tax in Malaysia is 24 percent.

Cyberjaya, Malaysia Inc. to return

He also declared that the government would be resurrecting the Malaysia Incorporated Policy, first mooted in 1981 during his first tenure as prime minister.

“As you know (at) one time, we had Malaysia Incorporated in which the government and the private sector worked together with Malaysia was one big corporation. Both will gain with such a doing.

“But, of course, that approach was discarded by the last two prime ministers and now we are bringing it back.

“We want to work closely with the private sector, which means, of course, we will be accessible to the private sector,” he said.

Two other hallmarks of the first Mahathir-era - Cyberjaya and Vision 2020 - will also be reinstated.

When asked about the latter today, Mahathir said the vision needed to be extended to the year 2025 as the present government had to correct mistakes made by previous administrations.

“Because of the changes that took place in the last decade, it may not be possible for us to achieve the vision in the year 2020, it may take a little bit more time.

“The interpretation given by the last government is (the future of the country) about high income (but) high income in itself does not help people. When you have high income and the price of everything goes up, the purchasing power remains the same,” he noted.

Higher wages

The previous BN government under Najib Abdul Razak had envisioned Malaysia to be a “high-income nation” by 2050.

The Harapan government under Mahathir aims to increase the productivity of the country in order to keep production costs low.

This will ensure that the rakyat continues to enjoy a high purchasing power as they will earn higher wages, he said.

“If we do that, I think we will be able to achieve the vision not in 2020 perhaps, but maybe in 2025,” Mahathir said.