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Guan Eng: With no sign of economic recovery, Muhyiddin must be transparent with RM627b Covid-19 allocation

DAP Secretary General Lim Guan Eng speaks to the press at a press conference in Wisma DAP, George Town March 8, 2021. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin
DAP Secretary General Lim Guan Eng speaks to the press at a press conference in Wisma DAP, George Town March 8, 2021. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin

KUALA LUMPUR, May 16 — Former finance minister Lim Guan Eng today pressured Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to explain how the Perikatan Nasional has spent some RM627 billion in allocations with policies and the Covid-19 situation still in tatters.

The DAP secretary-general said the RM5 billion the government ‘raided’ from the National Trust Fund (KWAN) paired with the RM622 billion in economic stimulus packages are funds PN must be transparent with, especially with no sign of economic recovery in sight.

Lim said the lack of insights into how these funds are being spent has triggered increased public scrutiny and doubts over the effectiveness of the government and its expenditures, especially towards the country’s slow vaccination program which the additional funds were supposedly meant for.

“This is perhaps the reason for PN relying on emergency powers to amend the KWAN Act without getting parliamentary approval, to allow KWAN funds meant for future investments for our children, to be used for the National Immunisation programme.

“Using KWAN funds is a dishonest act by PN, because Budget 2021 never disclosed this when it was approved by Parliament,” he said in a statement today.

The Bagan MP pointed out how the RM5 billion taken from KWAN has seemingly failed to accelerate the inoculation rate that currently stands at 2.3 per cent, which he asserted is slower than Indonesia who has vaccinated 4.2 per cent of their 290 million population.

“How then is the RM5 billion spent? Malaysia is the worst Asia-Pacific country in Covid-19 infections per capita but our daily infection rate has now exceeded Indonesia.

“No wonder Indonesia uses Malaysia as a sorry example to warn its citizens not to follow Malaysia in Covid-19 SOP compliance failure,” he said.

Lim said all these situations cemented calls for PN to be fully accountable for being responsible with such large sums, which he said has failed to benefit the wellbeing of Malaysians.

“Even though PN tries to spin the GDP contraction of 0.5 per cent for the first quarter of 2021 as positive for the economy, Malaysia needs to grow by 10 per cent for the remainder of the year to attain the targeted 7.5 per cent in GDP growth for 2021.

“Without the RM622 billion at our disposal, it is unlikely that Malaysia can grow at 10 per cent for the remainder of the year,” he added.

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