PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister Najib Razak has slammed his successor Dr Mahathir Mohamad for using non-repayment of National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN) student loans as an example of Malays being untrustworthy, irresponsible and lazy.
He put the blame for the poor repayment rate of PTPTN loans on Pakatan Harapan (PH), which he said fooled the people with sweet promises of abolishing the PTPTN debts if it came to power.
This encouraged borrowers to default on their loans, Najib said in a posting on Facebook today.
In a media interview, Mahathir said the Malays are seen as being not trustworthy as they do not have a sense of responsibility when they are trusted with something.
“We make promises but we can easily break them,” he said.
Mahathir cited the PTPTN student loans as an example of Malays being reluctant to repay their debts.
“Although I agree in general with the message of Tun Dr Mahathir that Malays should work as hard as others and be responsible, the PTPTN defaulters included other races who were also taken in by Pakatan’s sweet promises.
“PTPTN was damaged by Pakatan and they should not cite this issue as an excuse to blame only one race.
“A similar situation has occurred in the AES (Automated Enforcement System) which Pakatan also promised to abolish, resulting in the public refusing to settle the summonses,” he said, referring to the millions of unpaid summonses which the government has now written off.
Najib said PH must assume the responsibility over the issue of many borrowers refusing to repay their PTPTN loans.
“Since Pakatan will not abolish the PTPTN debts as previously promised, I urge all the borrowers, regardless of race and including Malays, to fulfil their responsibility to repay their loans according to their individual ability so that more students will be able to get PTPTN loans in future,” he said. -FMT
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