Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 18): Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the 11th Malaysia Plan Mid-term Review presented by his successor Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today, is largely premised upon achievements of the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government. 

Speaking to reporters at the Parliament lobby today after the presentation, Najib said the mid-term review of the five-year national plan did not include many new elements. 

"A big part of the mid-term review seems to be premised from what we were doing and a continuity of what we have achieved. There are not many new elements included in the prime minister's presentation just now, many of those initiatives were started by the BN government," Najib said. 

He claimed the country’s economic development under his administration in 2017 was “very good”. He rejected the current government’s view that his administration had been wasteful. 

"There were some allegations that the previous government was being wasteful, but when I went through the presentation, the government's debt was reduced from 54% of GDP to 50%, so how are we wasteful when the debt level was declining? 

“Our fiscal deficit has also declined, so there were a few statements that were labelling, but not substantiated with published facts," he added.

Nonetheless, Najib said he supports the principle of advocating good governance as stressed by Dr Mahathir. 

"One of the suggestions was to have regulations on political funding. The BN government was already doing it when I was the prime minister, under the National Transformation Policy. 

“But during that period, the opposition, now the government, was opposed to this idea. Since the prime minister advocated to have transparency in political funding today, I welcome it," he said. 

Najib claimed a few aspects deemed as priority by the BN government, such as public transport, were not highlighted in the mid-term review. 

“There is also shortage of details about how is the government going to narrow the wealth disparity between the rich and poor, for places like the East Coast (of peninsular Malaysia) and Sabah and Sarawak. 

"One part that is glaring was (that) the presentation did not mention about the election promises the government made, before winning the people's mandate," Najib added.

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