SHAH ALAM, 9 Jan: The BN Government is expected to reduce the number of civil servants if they continue their habit of extravagantly spending, causing the national debt to reach 55 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), thus being declared bankrupt.
The move will be made when the Federal Government is desperate to reduce its spending to pay off the existing debt, which is expected to be restructured and a new loan will be taken out, whether from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or other international banks.
The PKR Strategy Director, Rafizi Ramli, said the new loan which will be taken will come with certain conditions that will victimise the people and civil servants.
“When a loan is too high and the government is unable to repay it, the government will take out other loans to temporarily accommodate finances. But, the conditions that come with it will be too large.
“If we are a country that is facing the same situation as Greece or Spain; the World Bank, IMF or other international banks will set conditions, and usually, the group that would first become victim is the people.
“If the BN Government cannot repay its debts and reaches bankruptcy, they would have to abide by the economic decision by victimising the people,” he said.
Rafizi said this in an exclusive interview with Selangor Kini at the Centre for Democracy Reformation and Social Initiative in Puchong recently.
He added that this situation will not only result in downsizing civil servants, cutting salaries and steep increases in necessary goods and services, bit at the same time, other expenses for the people will be reduced.
“The situation will be like the immediate withdrawal of fuel subsidies and other necessary goods which will cause the price of petrol and other necessary goods to increase even more than the current rate. These things will happen,” said Rafizi.
He said that there are some countries facing bankruptcy, such as Greece, Spain, Iceland, Russia and Argentina, which have decided to introduce new taxes or to steeply increase existing taxes.
This is to obtain funds to repay debts and to generate national income when the country if facing bankruptcy.
“The suffering of the people in bankrupt countries will be followed by a decreased ability to safeguard public peace because expenses related to security are reduced.
“In that situation, riots and crime will increase, like what happened to Argentina when they were bankrupt. Violence increased by 142 percent and unemployed youths are forced to rob to obtain financial resource,” he said.
Rafizi explained that a country facing bankruptcy will be unable to continue programmes that were previously funded by the government, such as health, education, public development and infrastructural support such as roads and other utilities, and this will cause the people’s level of health to go down.
“At that time, BN would certainly be thrown by the people. But the suffering faced by the people and the burden inherited by Pakatan Rakyat after taking over a government that is bankrupt will take time, from one to two generations, to be recovered,” Rafizi added.
