Najib: Anwar not qualified for PM post

Bernama

The prime minister says that the opposition leader has lost his credibility, even among his own supporters.

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim is not qualified to helm the nation because he has lost his credibility even among his supporters, said Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

Commenting on Anwar’s aspirations to become prime minister, he said a founder of PKR, Dr Chandra Muzaffar, who had left Anwar, had even said that it would be disastrous for the country if the latter was to be the prime minister.

“If we put up a billboard and paste the pictures of those who have left him, I think we are going to need a huge billboard because there are so many of them who have left him, from Chandra Muzaffar to his former private secretary Ezam Mohd Nor, to his press secretary Anuar Shaari and lawyer Zulkifli Nordin,” Najib was quoted as saying by Bernama.

The prime minister also said that with the general election looming, the opposition would resort to all kinds of tricks in trying to win the people’s support.

He said they would hurl all kinds of allegations against the government, twist facts and would even resort to fabricating issues in trying to draw support.

“I see a lot of the issues raised by the opposition are not based on fact but are ‘auta’ (hot air). Unlike the Barisan Nasional government which is not in a popularity contest,” he added.

Najib said the opposition hurled accusations like the 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) given to the people was “haram”, that the government was borrowing money to make the BR1M payments and that it was politcal corruption but when the register of BR1M recipients was opened, it was opposition members who turned up in droves to claim the money, sometimes numbering more than BN supporters.

“But if you want to accuse the money is haram, don’t accept it…no shame! This why I say they are ‘auta’…’auta’ BRIM. The government is giving back money to the people because we have administered the country well.

“As a caring government, we must do the best for the people. And in the parliamentary democracy system we are practising, it is incumbent of the government to gain the confidence of the people,” he said.

Najib said in the last three years, the people got to see changes after changes brought by the government, such as key policies like the GTP (Government Transformation Programme, ETP (Economic Transformation Programme), PTP (Political Transformation Programme), RTP (Rural Transformation Programme) and others.

“Of the aid we have given directly to the people, the BR1M has been the most popular. It is my belief that by what the government has done through these major policy changes, projects to change the economic landscape locally and nationally and provision of direct aid to the people, the people’s confidence in the BN government has increased manifold,” he said.

Opposition makes unrealistic promises

Meanwhile, the prime minister also said that the BN government would not make any promise which cannot be delivered.

He said that even without making any promises, however, the government had always strived for the betterment of the people.

“To the opposition, selling promises are their weapons; but when we look at these promises carefully, we know that they cannot be delivered,” he said.

Najib said that if the opposition’s promises were to be implemented, the country would end up bankrupt.

“Imagine if the opposition forms the government and it wants to abolish tolls. Here we have the works minister and when I asked him to lower the toll charges, he said he needed to make an accurate calculation, and that if we can afford it, the charges can be lowered.

“But the opposition said that if they win Putrajaya, they are going to abolish tolls. Can this be done? No, it can’t be done; it’s absurd,” he said.

“Then they said that the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loan would be abolished immediately. When I asked the higher education minister about this, he said that if the PTPTN was to be abolished, we would lose RM40 billion. And after that we could no longer give out loans in the future,” he added.

The prime minister said that the opposition parties were only good at making promises in terms of expenditure, like abolishing tolls and PTPTN loans, but made no consideration whatsoever about the source of income.

“We don’t need to have all the degrees to know this; if we work at a sundry shop, we should know about money coming in and going out. If there is no money coming in, soon the shop will have to be closed. They (opposition) are selling promises, things which cannot be fulfilled,” he said.