(Sept 15): Blaming Datuk Seri Najib Razak for the country's current economic woes, PKR's Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli today submitted a private member's bill to Parliament to prevent a person from holding the posts of prime minister and finance minister at the same time.

He said embattled Najib's political scandals have affected investor confidence in the country.

"I think this is at least a start because it doesn't seemed that Najib is going to quit soon and Umno doesn't look as though it is capable of removing him internally.

"So, we have to be content with Najib as prime minister for a while but if he relinquished the finance minister portfolio, it will bring back some confidence," he said at the PKR headquarters today.

Najib's brainchild 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) has incurred RM42 billion debts in just six years of operation and the state investment vehicle is currently under numerous probes for alleged financial irregularities.

Najib is also under fire over the RM2.6 billion "donation" he received from an unknown Middle Eastern donor into his private banking accounts ahead of the 2013 general election.

Despite Putrajaya's assurances that the country's fundamentals are strong, worries remained over the economy as the ringgit, Asia's worst performing currency in the past one year, has plunged beyond RM4 against the US dollar while foreign exchange reserves slipped below US$100 billion last month for the first time since 2010.

Many attributed the ringgit's poor performance to worsening global outlook, China's surprise devaluation of the yuan, plunging commodity prices and the current political scandals linked to Najib.

The severity of the ringgit depreciation prompted Najib to form an economic task force, which includes some of the country's top financiers, to find ways to restore confidence.

Rafizi said the bill, "Act of Separation of Position (Prime Minister and Finance Minister) 2015", can boost confidence on the country's economy if it is passed by Parliament.

"It is necessary to legally institute the separation of finance minister and prime minister positions.

"If BN MPs are serious in helping the country and bring back confidence to the economy, I hope they will set aside partisanship and support this by piling pressure on Parliament and the government to allow this bill to be debated and voted upon.

"The separation of both portfolios will have more impact to restore confidence than the injection of RM20 billion into the stock market," he said in reference to Najib's announcement of the pumping of funds into state equity investment firm ValueCap to shore up Bursa Malaysia.

The PKR secretary-general said the public needed to recalibrate their expectations that a no-confidence vote is the only way to force Najib to go, as it is not as easy as it seemed.

"Any no-confidence vote will require support from at least 30 people from BN, of which you need between 10 and 15 from Umno. I don't see Umno MPs having the guts to support a no-confidence vote.

"Hence it is dangerous for the entire country, including the opposition to continue to be dragged into the no-confidence vote.

"They have to recalibrate their expectations and put more hopes at defeating BN in the general election rather than hoping for a quick solution via the no-confidence vote," he added. – The Malaysian Insider