SHAH ALAM, 15 Jan: As soon as Barisan Nasional (BN) obtained a fresh mandate in the 13th General Election (GE13), the national economic situation has worsened when the party continued to create damages to the national economy.
This condition happened when the BN Government failed to take concrete measures to repair the economy, coupled with the practice of loving to spend extravagantly, to not control leakages and the increasing corruption.
The Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Strategy Director, Rafizi Ramli, said that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) would require at least two terms to obtain a balanced budget if they successfully obtain the mandate to form the government in the 14th General Election.
“There is no other country that has recorded 16 consecutive years of producing a deficit budget except for Malaysia under BN.
“The longer BN is allowed to rule, the economic problems will be much bigger and more time will be needed to fix the economy,” he said in an exclusive interview with Selangor Kini recently.
Rafizi said, among the practices continued by BN causing the economic and financial structure of the country to become weakened is the practice of saving cronies, which has to date taken up billions of ringgit.
Apart from that, the practice of awarding projects through direct negotiations to unqualified cronies has become the factor of the damage to the national economic structure.
BN has also taken a complacent attitude when facing the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) scandal involving the Wanita Umno Chief, Datuk Seri Sharizat Abdul Jalil and government funds amounting to RM250 million.
Equally scandalous is the National Defence Studies Centre project involving funds of RM13 million, involving the Selangor Wanita Umno Chief, Datuk Raja Ropiah Raja Abdullah.
“The BN Government’s indifference in reclaiming funds issued by the Federal Government for this failed project gives the perception that they are involved in earning easy profits of hundreds of millions of ringgit for free,” said Rafizi.
Rafizi added that it is the responsibility of the people to ensure the BN is defeated in the GE14 to avoid the country from sliding into a deep economic slump, thus losing the ability to pay existing debts, which is already above RM500 billion.
