PM fumes over bailout mockery, says RM1.1b for firm's vendors

 

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has hit back at critics of the government's RM1.1 billion cash injection into debt-ridden Sapura Energy Bhd.

Stressing that the funding is to be exclusively used to repay vendors, Anwar lamented that he would have been lambasted whether Putrajaya had stepped in with its assistance or not.

"Out of the approximately 2,000 vendors, 80 percent of them are bumiputera who had contributed (to Sapura Energy). How can they (the vendors) be punished?" he questioned.

"If I don't help them, they (critics) will say Anwar is a traitor (who) no longer champions the fate of bumiputera, he's just a mouthpiece for DAP.

"When we help, they say we're just helping the company, (but) I'm not saving rich tauke (tycoons), (as) every sen of the funding will go to vendors who worked, but have not been paid," Anwar said during his monthly assembly with Finance Ministry staffers in Putrajaya today.

[More to follow] - Mkini