BINTULU, Sept 14: Pelawan assemblyman David Wong Kee Woan must explain how the country’s debt under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government managed to soar pass the RM800 billion mark.
Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) president Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, said Wong should explain his recent Facebook posting on the country’s debt, which also mentioned Tiong.
Otherwise, Wong can be accused of deliberately misleading the people with his long statement “filled with half-truths and careful omissions of facts”, the Bintulu MP added.
“Wong should save his expenses on his propaganda through the press and divert those funds to improve the people’s livelihoods in Sarawak,” Tiong said in a statement.
He added: “I dare say that in politics and personal life, my principles have remained the same, which is to serve the people and improve their livelihood. I carry out my duties and responsibilities to the people.”
He asked whether Wong and the entire DAP lawmakers can say the same.
Tiong wanted Wong to also clarify whether the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) plan was meant for the government to cut expenses.
Otherwise, what is the reason for the federal government to continue borrow money, he asked.
Touching on the 1MDB matters that Wong posted on his Facebook, Tiong said the Pelawan assemblyman would not dare to divulge how much of its asset have been sold off by the Pakatan Harapan government.
According to Tiong, the media have reported that the Pakatan government had successfully recovered 1MDB’s debts, but not reflected in any reduction in the national debt.
“We need to ask Wong and his DAP counterparts, where did the recovered funds go to? If they use it to pay down our national debts, which one is it? What is the total debt of the country now?” he asked.
Tiong claimed it is well acknowledged that the national debt during the Barisan Nasional (BN) government had only reached RM686.8 billion at the end of 2017.
He alleged that since Pakatan has been in power for a year-and-a-half, the national debt has shot up to RM800 billion including the government loan of RM51 billion and the samurai bond of RM7 billion.
He said that the government had only repaid RM17.7 billion of the debt and questioned where the rest went to.
According to Tiong, the government’s investment arm Khazanah Nasional achieved a pre-tax profit of RM2.896 billion compared to 2017. In turn, it did not make profit in 2018 and the loss before tax was RM6.3 billion.
With this regards, he said this was the first time that a government institution faces a loss in 10 years and asked whether Wong dared to admit to this.
“The numbers do not lie. For this, Wong must apologise,” he said. — DayakDaily
