PUTRAJAYA, 23 Mei -- Perdana Menteri Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (tiga, kanan) mempengerusikan Mesyuarat Kabinet pertama di Perdana Putra hari ini. Turut hadir (dari kiri) Menteri Pendidikan Dr Maszlee Malik, Menteri Kewangan Lim Guan Eng, Timbalan Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Menteri Dalam Negeri Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin dan Menteri Pertahanan Mohamad Sabu. --fotoBERNAMA (2018) HAK CIPTA TERPELIHARA
KUALA LUMPUR – Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s first official policy move was to reduce Cabinet members’ pay by 10 per cent, replicating a similar step he took in 1981.
The paycut appeared designed to reinforce his previous revelation that Malaysia was over RM1 trillion in debt due to the excesses and abuses of the defeated Barisan Nasional (BN) administration.
He also invited senior civil servants to join in the austerity move, but said he would leave this to the discretion of the individual ministries. – Malay Mail
Gov’t won’t buy back Proton, says Dr M
The federal government does not own national carmaker Proton Holdings and does not intend to acquire it, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
He said the company – which was started by his administration in 1984 – was now owned by tycoon Syed Mokhtar Albukhary.
Mahathir added that his administration has no intention of taking over the company.
“Syed Mokhtar owns Proton. If (he) wants to buy it back, it is up to him,” said Mahathir during a press conference after chairing his first cabinet meeting today.
Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak engineered the sale of a 49.9 percent stake in Proton to China’s Geely last year.
DRB-Hicom, which is owned by Syed Mokhtar, holds the remaining 50.1 percent stake in Proton.
When asked about how his first cabinet meeting went, Mahathir said everyone had a chance to speak.
“I wanted to prove to them (ministers) that I am not a dictator,” he said in jest.
Asked whether his post-cabinet meeting press conferences will be held regularly, Mahathir said that the government wanted to keep the press informed.
“If not, you will go about writing fake news. Since we are abolishing fake news the law then we can’t arrest you,” he quipped.- M’kini
Dr M seeks to cut national debt of 65pc of GDP
KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia will try to cut its national debt of RM1 trillion, some 65 per cent of GDP, by aborting or reconsidering some projects and cutting ministers’ salaries, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.
Dr Mahathir, 92, led an opposition coalition to a shock victory in elections this month after campaigning on rising living costs and a promise to clean up corruption at the highest levels of government.
Dr Mahathir said the national debt of Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy was 65 per cent of GDP, and earlier this week blamed abuses by the previous government, led by the ousted prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, for the ballooning figure.
“I’ve been informed that our debt is actually 1 trillion ringgit, but today we were able to study and look for ways to reduce this debt,” he said at a press conference.
Dr Mahathir added that Cabinet ministers’ salaries would be cut by 10 per cent and that his government would decide “very soon” on whether to continue with the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur high speed rail project.
“This will be managed by the finance minister and in our downsizing process, no one with lower salaries will be affected,” he added.
Najib has said previously the national debt was below his government’s self-imposed ceiling of 55 per cent of GDP. But Dr Mahathir has said many of the figures recording the country’s financial position may be false.
Najib faces a graft probe into a multi-billion dollar scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Since his electoral defeat, authorities have searched properties owned by Najib and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, and seized cash and items, including jewellery and luxury handbags, estimated to be worth millions of dollars.
Najib denies wrongdoing.
Dr Mahathir also said he would review the search by a US firm for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 which disappeared on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board, in one of the world’s biggest aviation mysteries. — Reuters
Malaysia to axe thousands of contractual staff to cut spending
PETALING JAYA — Thousands of government workers in Malaysia will lose their jobs and state agencies will be dissolved as Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad moves to curb spending and debt.
The government will dismiss 17,000 contractual employees and reduce ministers’ salaries by 10 per cent, Mahathir said in a press briefing after his first cabinet meeting in Putrajaya today. Contracts, including those for the search of aircraft MH370 and for the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur rail, will be reviewed, he said without giving a timeline.
Agencies, including the regulator Land Public Transport Commission and the Special Affairs Department, which is tasked with advising the state on maintaining public perception, will be dissolved.
“Most of these institutions founded which were not part of government, which were supposed to advise government, all these things will be disbanded,” Mahathir said. “We don’t need their intelligence. I think we are quite intelligent ourselves.”
Policy in flux
Mahathir, who was swept into power in a surprise election win this month, is moving swiftly to stabilise the nation’s finances after the government reported that debt was higher than previously disclosed under the former administration. Credit rating agencies had warned of risks after Mahathir scrapped a goods-and-services tax to fulfill a campaign promise.
Total debt stands at 65 per cent of gross domestic product, higher than the self-imposed limit of 55 per cent, Mahathir said.
Newly-installed Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said yesterday that debt exceeds RM1 trillion ringgit, inflated by borrowing by 1MDB, a state investment company that’s at the center of a multi billion-dollar corruption scandal. The Ministry of Finance’s most recent economic report puts federal government debt at 685 billion ringgit in 2017.
“It is clear that the previous government has conducted an exercise of deception to the public about certain hot-button items, especially 1MDB, and even misrepresented the financial situation to parliament,” Lim, 57, said on his first day at work at the ministry. “A thorough investigation and discovery is still ongoing to uncover the necessary financial information and data.”
Credit rating
Government debt in Malaysia has been flagged as a risk by economists and credit rating companies such as Moody’s Investors Service. While the previous government steadily lowered its budget deficit over recent years to 3 per cent of GDP, debt is higher than other A-rated countries.
Once borrowing by state-owned companies is added, the debt burden climbs. Fitch Ratings said in a March report that debt guarantees provided by the federal government increased to almost 16.8 per cent of GDP in September 2017 from 15.2 per cent at the end of 2016.
“Frankly speaking, this is not surprising,” said Trinh Nguyen, a senior economist at Natixis Asia Ltd. in Hong Kong. “We are just getting something that was, in a way, off budget and it is now getting on budget.”
She added that “investors weren’t fooled to think that Malaysia’s debt is what it is” and “the issue has always been its contingent liabilities and what does that mean in terms of debt repayment ability for Malaysia.”
Sales tax
Lim, the former chief minister of the northern Penang state, said the government is considering reintroducing a sales-and-services tax this year and the levy will be set at 10 per cent if a pledge in the manifesto of Mahathir’s coalition is followed.
Mahathir is tackling corruption related to 1MDB, whose full name is 1Malaysia Development Bhd., ordering the reopening of investigations into the state fund as one of his first steps since taking office two weeks ago.
1MDB is one of the main reasons for the government’s high debt, Lim said. Set up by the government in 2009 to build infrastructure with borrowed money, 1MDB amassed more than 50 billion ringgit of debt in just over six years, largely from assets in the energy sector. Its borrowings clouded the sovereign credit rating, weighing on the government’s contingent liabilities. Its current debt level is not immediately clear.
“Some of this information was not fully disclosed, so I think it’s important that we get on with our discovery so we can get all information on the table,” Lim said. — Bloomberg
MALAY MAIL / MKINI / REUTERS / BLOOMBERG
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