Time for National Recovery Council to be dissolved

 

From Chester Lim

I do not understand why we had to have the National Recovery Council (MPN). I do not understand why Muhyiddin Yassin has to head it.

MPN is not acting like the National Economic Action Council (NEAC). To give the chairmanship to Muhyiddin is like coming to a political settlement, to give the loser some reward, so that he can still have a minister status.

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Up till now, MPN has not published a single report. We still do not know the cost of the Covid-19 pandemic. What was the size of business losses? What was the impact on the gross domestic product (GDP)?

What was the social cost? What was the cost of lives lost? What was the cost of divorces, children who lost education, and the cost to the informal economy?

Until today, MPN has not given any of these answers.

What recommendations has MPN given to the government? Why is it a secret? Why can’t it be put on the public domain?

We know the CEO of the MPN secretariat is Sulaiman Mahbob, a retired civil servant and close friend of Muhyiddin’s. Sulaiman is also the chairman of Institute Masa Depan, which was founded by Muhyiddin.

The CEO made a press statement saying that 95 recommendations were made to the government, of which 86 were approved by the Cabinet. What recommendations were made, what was accepted?

We don’t know what recovery MPN is talking about – economic, social, or ecosystem.

What crisis is MPN addressing – the Covid-19 pandemic that hit us in 2020 to 2021? In that case, they are irrelevant because Covid-19 is over though maybe another variant will come.

Growth has been good from the first to third quarter of the year. Third quarter growth was at 14%.

The economy has recovered without MPN’s intervention or guidance. All MPN has done is get into barbed conflicts with the prime minister.

We demand an accounting statement of the costs incurred by MPN and what its output or deliverables were.

It is time for MPN to be dissolved. This is long overdue. Let us not waste public money. - FMT

Chester Lim is a concerned citizen and a FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.