KAJANG, 10 Feb: Being fond of luxury and tendencies to waste pacticed by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, is far different that the second Prime Minister, the late Tun Abd Razak Hussein and his wife, Tun Rahah Mohd Noah, as well as the Deputy Prime Minister, the late Tun Abdul Ghafar Baba.
The former Member of Parliament for Batu Berendam, Datuk Mohd Tamrin Abdul Ghafar, who is the second son of Ghafar Baba, said that the attitude shown by Najib is not only a misuse of government assets which are funded by public funds, but a show of lack of concern towards the pressures faced by the people with the rising cost of living.
“While the people are in the midst of difficulties, (and while) the prices are increasing, Najib and Rosmah are not concerned. They went on vacation, using the government jet, to Australia and the United States, but Tun Razak, on his last trip to London to seek treatment, did not allow Tun Rahah to follow because there was no jumbo jet and they had to buy plane tickets.
“Tun Rahah did not go in the end because they wanted to save and not use government funds.
“However, today, I think the government has been in high debt since Najib became Prime Minister. This was confirmed by Tun Dr Mahathir.
Three planes and two helicopters were purchased, involving a maintenance cost of RM14 million for fuel and RM174 million for maintenance per year. Since Najib became Prime Minister, he has never used MAS planes,” he said in a speech in front of over 500 Kajang residents at Dataran Prima Saujana recently.
Tamrin also touched on the memory of the Prime Minister’s brother, Nazir Razak, when Tun Razak rejected the request of his own children to build a swimming pool because he did not want public funds belonging to the people to be abused with impunity.
“Tun Razak told his children that Seri Taman (the official residence of the Prime Minister at the time) may be their home, but the house was owned by the government, thus it was also the right of the people. What will the people think,” he said.
Mohd Tamrin also recalled a memory of his when he was in school, when he and his other brothers had to cycle every day to school although his father was the Chief Minister of Malacca at the time.
“When my father was Chief Minister, we brothers went to the Malacca High School by bicycle every day. Our sisters took the taxi although we had cars and drivers.
“My mother asked my father – Why not use the driver? Why make it difficult for the children to go to school by taxi and bicycle.
“My father answered, it is the government’s car and it cannot be used at will. Only for government matters,” he said.
