The absence of any fund to secure Malaysia's petroleum wealth for the future generation has been described as a "serious indictment" of the government.
PKR vice president Chua Jui Meng said while almost all oil producing countries have their own oil funds for their peoples’ future, Malaysia still does not have such a plan despite the setting up of national oil company Petronas in 1974.
"Has there been any such oil fund set up? As far as I know there has never been a disclosure by the government of the existence of such a fund," he said in a statement to Harakahdaily, lamenting the extraordinary wealth of Barisan Nasional leaders and their families.
Chua pointed out that four decades of oil revenue amounting to "billions or even trillions of ringgit" meant that the absence of such a fund was a "tragic betrayal of the people's trust".
"There is absolutely no excuse that is acceptable to Malaysians for this tragic betrayal of the people’s trust by our 'oil sheikhs ... Mahathir, Abdullah and Najib'," said Chua, referring to former prime ministers Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and the incumbent Najib Razak.
Prior to this, Petronas founding chairman Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, currently the Gua Musang member of parliament, had revealed that the giant company had planned to preserve the oil wealth for future generations through the setting up of a National Petroleum Heritage Fund, to which a percentage of oil revenue would be channelled.
Chua reminded that even Norway with a population of five million has its oil fund, known as Norway Pension Fund, which stood at US$656 billion (RM2 trillion), while the UAE-Abu Dhabi Investment Authority's oil revenue sovereign wealth fund stood at US$627 billion.
"Instead, after 55 years, the corrupt BN government has given us a RM502 billion federal debt that is fast growing," he added, citing several recent exposés of mass-scale corruption of the country's wealth.
Referring to the RM250 million scandal involving the National Feedlot Corporation managed by the family of Wanita UMNO head Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Chua said it was an example of how cronyism was practised at the cost of public good.
"If the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) had not been hijacked by the Shahrizat family, low-income Malaysians today would be enjoying affordable beef. We will not be paying about RM27 for a kilogramme of beef now when it was only about RM7 per kg in 2000," he said.
Chua also spoke about the latest revelation involving minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Aziz, whose defence of UMNO's crony tycoon Michael Chia had been linked with benefits enjoyed by his son Mohamad Nedim Nazri, who has the penchant of flaunting his wealth.
"Nedim was seen driving a more than RM500,000 Hummer registered in the name of Michael Chia. Not only that, pictures of Nedim wearing a Richard Mille Tourbillon (model RM 002 V2) watch worth RM1,072,000 have surfaced in social network Facebook.
"What is happening to Malaysia and its ruling lawmakers? Scandals that expose their enormous wealth are surfacing regularly while our RM502 billion federal debt continues to climb," Chua said.
-Harakahdaily
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