KUALA LUMPUR, 30 Nov: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is the most spendthrift Finance Minister, by forcing Petronas to contribute the highest dividend rates in the country’s history.
PKR deputy president Azmin Ali accounted that, except for Najib, there has never been a Finance Minister or Prime Minister who has extensively used Petronas funds.
Based on the Ministry of Finance and the Department of Statics, throughout Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s term as Finance Minister, Petronas had contributed a dividend of RM3.1 billion from 1992 until 1997.
The amount of dividends Petronas contributed when Tun Abdullah Badawi was the Finance Minister was RM9.1 billion in 2004, RM11.0 billion in 2005, RM18.0 for 2006 and RM24.0 billion for 2007.
Meanwhile, during Najib’s term, a sum of RM30.0 billion in dividends have been contributed consistently from 2009 to 2011.
“When Anwar had worked to reduce the national debt, the country spent prudently resulting in income surpassing spending without burdening Petronas and had driven economic growth up to 10 percent. Datuk Seri Najib had taken 10 times more out of Petronas funds.
“The national debt increased five-fold, the budget deficit lasted for 14 years and the economic growth rate is still sluggish at the rate of around four to five per cent,” he said at a press conference at PKR headquarters.
Azmin came forward today to maintain the credibility and ability of PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in steering the economy following Najib’s attack yesterday at the Umno general assembly.
Azmin explained that Najib’s economic performance has not once ever surpassed Anwar’s in successfully accelerating economic growth in reaching 9-10 percent during his term as the Minister of Finance.
During Najib’s appointment as the Minister of Finance since 2009, he has reversed the economy’s direction and lead it towards crisis while neighbouring countries such as Indonesia continues to grow rapidly.
In addition, Najib Razak has also failed to overcome debt problems although Anwar had left it in a pretty good shape.
Azmin also said the modus operandi of the attacks against Anwar regarding his economic governance credibility is to use it again for the 13th General Elections (GE-13) to intimidate the people that the country will go bankrupt if Umno-BN is not given the power to rule.
“For the GE-13, people will still choose Pakatan Rakyat. This means that mature people will not be influenced by Umno-BN political propaganda in underestimating the people’s ability to evaluate the performance of the economy under the leadership of Anwar as Finance Minister.
