PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister Najib Razak has criticised Putrajaya’s decision to build four littoral mission ships (LMS) in China, describing the government as being “penny wise, pound foolish”.
In a Facebook post, Najib said his administration had agreed to buy four LMS from China at a cost of RM1.17 billion, with the agreement that two of the ships will be built in China and the other two in Malaysia by Boustead Naval Shipyard.
He said that in October 2018, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, with the agreement of Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu, instructed for all four ships to be built in China, saving the government RM122 million and reducing the cost of the contract to RM1.04 billion.
Mohamad had revealed this in a recent parliamentary reply.
Najib said although the government had saved RM122 million, it would have been better to build the ships here.
He said Boustead was owned by Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT) and if the ships were built in Malaysia, then Malaysians would get jobs and the country would benefit from the transfer of technology.
“We would be able to make repairs and upgrade the ships in the future. We would not have to pay so much to foreigners next time.
“We would not need to be totally reliant on China. Boustead would earn profits and pay the dividends to LTAT.”
In addition, Najib said the benefits of the spillover effects and the flow of money would benefit the economy many times more than RM122 million.
Now, the spillover effects and flow of cash would remain in China, while Malaysia would only be reduced to a “consumer” that was reliant on another country, he said.
“Boustead lost an opportunity. LTAT and their members do not get (anything),” he said, and questioned how “clever” Lim and Mohamad were.
“How can they not know simple things like this? I am sure China is now laughing at the move of our PH-led government.” - FMT
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