Harapan aware of Malaysia's finances before making promises, Najib says

Pakatan Harapan must have been aware of the state of the nation's finances before it made election promises that it could not keep, Najib Abdul Razak said today.

The former prime minister said the country’s budget and financial statements are made public annually, and MPs would receive copies of the statements made available on government websites.

“Funny. The ones who went all over Malaysia saying that the country is in critical condition and is about to go bankrupt, that's them.

"The ones who claimed that the government could abolish tolls, reduce fuel prices and all sorts of things, that's them.

“Now there are statements saying that when Pakatan Harapan was drafting its manifesto, they thought the country’s finances would be enough to abolish tolls... They knew. Moreover, many of their leaders are former BN leaders in government.

“So which lie do they want to tell now? If the country was going bankrupt, why would they think of abolishing tolls?” he said in a Facebook post last night.

Pakatan Harapan had pledged in its election manifesto to abolish highway tolls in stages.

However, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad was reported as saying last Friday that he did not think that this was achievable. 

"We made the manifesto thinking we would not be the government. Now we are the government and this manifesto is a big burden.

"But, at that time, I was against it lah. I know, to have a freeway… you cannot. The only way to have freeways and no toll is to raise the price of petrol," he said.

PKR's representative on the manifesto drafting team, Sim Tze Sin, had told Malaysiakini that some pledges, such as the abolishment of tolls, had been drafted without full knowledge of the country's finances or toll concessions.

More promises

In a separate Facebook post today, Najib posted a list of election promises that had been purportedly circulated prior to the election, including by Johor Bersatu’s Facebook account on Feb 6.

The list of 45 items includes pledges not contained in Harapan’s manifesto, such as abolishing the Automatic Enforcement System (AES) and providing free healthcare.

“I noticed that apart from promises pledged officially through a manifesto, various other promises were also made through social media and public speeches.

"This tactic is effective because Pakatan Harapan knew most Malaysians would believe information on social media and would not read or refer to their thick official manifesto.

“Guess how many promises on this list have been fulfilled? How many have they clearly ‘U-turned’ on?” he asked. - Mkini