It is not Pakatan Rakyat’s proposed policies but BN’s continued wastage, as shown in numerous government scandals, that will cause the country to be “bankrupt”, the DAP says.

“Without even going into the details of the accusations about Pakatan Rakyat policies that have been well rebutted by my colleagues previously, Prime Minister Najib Razak’s claims are completely preposterous,” Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua said today.

NONE“In fact, if the BN federal government's scandals are anything to go by, it is the current administration’s continued profligacy that will cause the country to be ‘bankrupt’ if BN are voted back into power,” Pua said in a statement.

He was responding to Najib, who in his speech at Umno’s general assembly yesterday said Pakatan’s poor policies would bankrupt the country if it came into power.

Pua blasted Najib, accusing him of cooking up figures to make Pakatan’s budget look bad.

He said Pakatan’s 2013 alternative budget compared with the BN shows Pakatan’s proposed expenditure of RM234 billion to be lower than BN’s RM252 billion and likewise, its projected deficit of 3.5 percent beats BN’s four percent.
Plucked from thin air

“How did Najib pluck a 30 percent, or an incredulous RM300 billion deficit, from thin air?” Pua asked.

On the other hand, the DAP national publicity secretary said, BN has been giving “all sorts of unacceptable excuses” over the Najib’s alleged scandals.

He cited two of these as the government’s failure to recover the RM250 million soft loan to the National Feedlot Corporation and Tajuddin Ramli’s RM RM589.6 million outstanding debt to government subsidiaries.

Pua also noted that Pakatan Selangor had recovered RM392 million of debt from Talam Corporation, and that the Selangor and Penang state governments have recorded budget surpluses since 2008. 

“Hence, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Malaysians throughout the country can evaluate and compare the performance of the BN administration against the Pakatan state administrations over the past five years and make informed judgments

“Pakatan Rakyat will implement prudent spending and will reallocate funds for our proposed expenditure by cutting wasteful expenditure, restructuring subsidies for target groups and eliminating corruption via open, transparent and competitive tenders and procurement systems,” Pua said.

“Pakatan Rakyat has more than proven that we are more than capable of strengthening the country’s finances and economy.

“On the other hand, the continued corruption, abuse of power and profligacy under the BN will inevitably lead to economic disaster for the nation,” he added.