PETALING JAYA: Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob should not be blamed for the country’s drop in the global competitiveness ranking, Najib Razak said today.
Taking to Facebook, Najib pointed out that the 2022 International Institute for Management Development (IMD) World Competitiveness Ranking would have measured Malaysia’s performance last year.
“Last year, the country was in a ‘half-baked’ lockdown for one of the longest periods in the world when Perikatan Nasional was in power,” he said, referring to former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s administration.
Muhyiddin, who became prime minister in March 2020 following the toppling of the Pakatan Harapan government, resigned from the top post in August last year.
Ismail then became Malaysia’s ninth prime minister.
Najib was responding to DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng’s criticism of Ismail for the country’s drop in the global competitiveness ranking. Lim had said it was the result of the prime minister’s failure to practise good governance.
Najib said Lim should instead pin the blame on ministers who were directly involved in the economy such as finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz, international trade and industry minister Azmin Ali and economic affairs minister Mustapa Mohamed.
The former prime minister said Muhyiddin should also shoulder some blame for this, as the minister-level chairman of the National Recovery Council.
“What’s odd is that Lim says the prime minister (Ismail) is a failure but he also signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) to support this prime minister.
“You say he’s a failure and yet you support him. Why is that, Guan Eng?” the Pekan MP asked Lim.
Lim’s criticism came in the wake of news that Malaysia had slipped seven notches to 32nd place in the 2022 IMD World Competitiveness Ranking, from 25th position last year.
The former finance minister said the drop in ranking reinforced the need for Putrajaya to heed warnings about the lack of competency, certainty, and consistency in its governance, warning that the report did not augur well for the economy. - FMT
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