No need to rave and rant, Najib told

Ariff Sabri says the PM's address to the nation reveals that there's a concentration of political and economic powers in the same hands.

PETALING JAYA: It’s a sign of peril for a country when its chief executive, in an address to the nation, resorts to screaming and issuing warnings, Raub MP Ariff Sabri says in his latest blog entry.

Referring to the Prime Minister’s televised address yesterday, Ariff says Najib can go on and on about ETP, GTP, NKRA and the “various other abbreviations concocted by highly paid consultants”, but he can’t convince his listeners that he really knows what he’s talking about.

“We’re not asking him about the effectiveness of the abbreviated initiatives,” he says. “We just want answers to questions about 1MDB’s management and whether or not trust has been breached when money is fleeced away or allowed to be fleeced away by Jho Low for his own business.

“We want to know whether 1MDB funds have been dishonestly used to buy assets at exorbitant rates. We want to know whether there has been an abuse of power in the purchase of government assets at ridiculously low prices.

“The people want to know what’s so bad about SST that it has to be replaced by GST.

“We know that as the government grows in size, it will need bigger funding. That being so, the people are worried that a government led by an arrogant PM, one who is extravagant in his spending, who tolerates corruption and swindling, who doesn’t care what happens to the people, will continue to rule.”

Ariff says Najib’s speech was an exposition of how actively and deeply involved the government is in the economic system.

“The biggest threat to our interests as citizens occurs when political and economic powers are concentrated in the same hands,” he says. “There will be a tendency towards autocracy and eventually kleptocracy. It will be a government of the top 1%, for the 1% , by the 1%.”

He says Najib had no reason to scream and shout at his critics because it is only fitting that the “public spirited” should monitor the government’s meddling in the economic system to ensure that it is done competently and with responsibility and justice.