KUCHING: Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng has been described as irresponsible and sorely incompetent judging by the comments he made recently on Sarawak’s economy.
“It shows how ill-suited he is for his ministerial position. Lim should be held liable for his statements could drive down investor confidence and potentially curtail any influx of investments that could have done much to accelerate the state’s economy,” said Bintulu Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing.
He thought that if Lim was sincere and a responsible leader, he ought to resign from his post. Or at the very least, he must formally apologise to Sarawak for his irresponsible remarks.
If he failed or refused to do any of that, he is merely an issuer misleading statements in a zero-sum game of undermining the state’s economy for selfish political mileage, said Tiong.
He figured that Lim’s statement could undermine the confidence that people and external observers have on him whose mandate is to restore the nation’s financial health and security.
“In saying that Sarawak’s reserves of RM31 billion would be used up in three years, Lim had displayed poor mastery of the most basic of financial management,” said Tiong.
“Having a budget deficit, which is normal for a country, is in no way heading towards bankruptcy. If this were the case, Lim should declare Malaysia a bankrupt nation now.”
He recalled that in reality the previous federal government had run and grown the national economy on a budget deficit for years.
As for Sarawak, he noted that it had recorded budget surpluses over a number of years including RM110.1 million last year (2018) against revenue of RM7.2 billion and ordinary expenditure of RM7.09 billion.
Furthermore, Sarawak had forecasted a reasonable surplus of RM122 million on the back of 4.6 per cent growth in 2018 and forecast nationwide growth of 4.9 per cent this year.
Ting pointed out that the Auditor-General of Malaysia had accorded Sarawak with an unqualified report for the past 17 consecutive years.
International rating agencies including Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s had reaffirmed Sarawak’s commendable investment credit rating at A3 and A-, respectively.
Ting observed that in contrast, since Lim became Finance Minister, the ministry management methods and statements have been nothing short of controversial and speculative.
“He accused the Barisan National (BN) government of misappropriating GST tax refunds, yet many companies are now still waiting for their refunds.
“Pakatan Harapan promised to remove the GST with a guarantee that the people would spend less now when it brought back the SST but instead nothing changes.
“Lim and PH had been telling the world that Malaysia is on the verge of bankruptcy with debts up to RM1 trillion, yet it is due to receive RM54 billion in dividends including a special dividend of RM30 billion from Petronas this year (2019),” he said.
