KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 23 — Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said that his Cabinet role was to right the economy, and not give handouts and freebies to the people contrary to what some might think.
The Pandan MP said that his mandate is to repair the country’s economic structure, which has veered from the path of sustainable growth due to practices that the country can no longer afford.
“The role of the minister of economy is not to be a Santa Claus, bringing free gifts to the people,” he said on social media platform X.
“The people are accustomed to announcements of projects or gifts as evidence of economic planning by the government. Some like to applaud mega projects worth tens of billions that were undertaken by past administrations without considering the debt burden they carried and which now the government has to handle.”
He said an example was how people wanted their Employees Provident Fund (EPF) money disbursed for spending, which Rafizi said was momentarily easy but difficult for the long term, and also drives up the prices of goods in the short term.
He listed other “unhealthy practices” by previous administrations including bulk subsidies given to everyone regardless of status.
“Such responsibilities have reached around RM80 billion annually, whereas this money could be directly given to eligible Malaysian families to be spent.”
“The second practice is borrowing and confusing any available funds as long as the government at the time could spend extravagantly like Santa Claus. Persistent high deficits, high dividends taken from Petronas each year, spending the people’s trust funds without plans to reduce the national debt.
“Third, the reliance on foreign workers, documented at 2.5 million, with more undocumented. This narrows job opportunities for citizens. Its impact is not only on employment opportunities, but also on currency outflows when their salaries are sent back every month,” he said.
Rafizi said that the Cabinet reshuffle recently created an uproar as Opposition supporters wanted to see someone else become the minister of economy, so that they can declare the failure of the country’s economic reform.
“This has been the issue played out since a year ago, claiming that the economy has stagnated and declined. In the first few months, they played the ‘there’s nothing’ issue to paint the picture of ‘ministers and the government doing nothing’,” he said.
“As May 2023 approached, the repercussions of economic uncertainty in the United States affected the value of the ringgit due to differences in interest rates. This further bolstered the Opposition’s attacks, claiming that the economy was in decline,” he said.
Rafizi went on to say that such criticism was common for the role and although he welcomed different perspectives, they must be based on comprehensive assessments rather than fragmented ones.
“Such perspectives must take into account the economic position assumed by the unity government last year,” he said.
“I know I will continue to be the target of Opposition attacks because it’s the easiest thing for them.
“I also know my responsibility is to continue providing enlightenment so that I can convince my Cabinet colleagues not to take shortcuts like past administrations and evade solving fundamental problems like these.”
