SHAH ALAM, 29 Oct: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is deemed as being dishonest when deliberately hiding the increase of cooking oil from public knowledge when presenting the National Budget 2014 on 25 October.
The Chairman of the Teras (Teras Pengupayaan Melayu – Malay Capacitation Core), Azmi Hamid said that Najib’s move is regrettable because it is like not keeping the people informed about the real situation.
He said that Najib, as the Minister of Finance, should not take light of the matter simply because of wanting to entertain certain quarters in raking in handsome profit.
“This is a dishonest way of tabling and it has all become mere rhetoric when what is said by the government previously to strengthen economic transformation and fulfil promises, is not done.
“The increase in the people’s essential goods such as cooking oil should not be hidden because consumers will know and it will be a huge issue they will raise. Do not think that this matter will not be detected despite attempts to keep it hidden,” he said when contacted by TVSelangor today.
Yesterday, Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim claimed that Putrajaya is deliberately trying to hide the increase of cooking oil and chose to publically announce the subsidy cut of sugar when presenting the budget.
Meanwhile, when Azmi was asked to comment on the statement by the World Bank economist, Dr Frederico Gil Sander, who predicted that the government would cut fuel subsidies for the second time next year, he also stressed that the matter has been already predicted to happen.
He said that the central government’s move to retract the subsidies is because Malaysia is no longer capable of managing resources well and is forced to follow the increase in oil price in the world market.
“Barisan Nasional should consider Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) suggestion to rationalise cost, not subsidies. The whole country would be impacted from this mismanagement when subsidy funds saved have been misused,” he said.