‘ASIAN TIGER’ MAHATHIR SMACKS ‘KLEPTOCRAT’ NAJIB, GIVES CLEAR WARNING TO KHAZANAH’S REBELLIOUS BOARD: ‘ARE YOU SAYING MALAYSIA SHOULD GO BACK TO YOUR ERA WHEN NATION WAS KNOWN AS A KLEPTOCRACY LED BY A KLEPTOCRAT’

KUALA LUMPUR— Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has taken a swipe at Datuk Seri Najib Razak over the latter’s remark that Pakatan Harapan (PH) policies would bring the country to “a bygone era”.

In a statement today, Dr Mahathir noted that the bygone era was the era when Malaysia was known as an ‘Asian Tiger’.

The term referred to several South-east Asian countries enjoying robust economy in the 1990s before it all came crashing down in the Asian financial crisis.

Dr Mahathir wondered if the people would prefer to return to the era of Najib’s administration when he helmed the country as prime minister.

“Is he saying that the people should be taken back to the era when the nation was known as a kleptocracy led by a kleptocrat?”, he said.

It was reported that Najib made the claim when debating the motion of thanks on the Royal Address at the Dewan Rakyat yesterday. — Bernama

Dr M: Khazanah resignations ‘clear the deck’ and allow restructuring

KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): The resignation of Khazanah Nasional Bhd’s managing director and nine board members will enable the Government to restructure the sovereign wealth fund, says Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He said the mass resignations is a move to “clear the deck to allow the Government to restructure it” in line with policies of the new administration.

“It is the Prime Minister’s prerogative to appoint the fund’s new board members, re-designation to other entities and retain some of them to allow for continuity,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement on Friday (July 27).

Dr Mahathir also said the Government is not on a witch-hunt.

“We do not regard everyone as guilty of everything, but this administration will not accept obvious wrong doings.

“This action of clearing the deck will allow restructuring as our policies are now different. While we believe in paying good salaries, we cannot all the time base it on commercial rates.

“We would rather focus on rewarding with good bonuses tied to performance as some companies may not perform as they should,” he explained.

On reports that RM2bil had been wiped out from Bursa Malaysia, Dr Mahathir asserted that the amount of paper loss was nothing compared to the burden of an inherited RM1 trillion debt which the current Government has to shoulder.

It was reported that six of Khazanah Nasional’s ten key stocks on Bursa Malaysia had declined on Thursday (July 26), losing about RM2bil in combined market value.

“The amount of debt is real, the amount needed to service the debts is real. And most of the amounts ‘invested’ by the previous administration has yet to be recovered as we do not know where it has been ‘invested’,” Dr Mahathir said.

Khazanah Nasional confirmed on Thursday that all its board members, including managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar, had submitted undated resignation letters.

In a statement issued by the fund, it said this was to facilitate a smooth and orderly transition under the new Government. – Bernama

BERNAMA