The Malaysian Insight

PRIME Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he would like to run up a national debt of RM1 trillion and see how Najib Razak settled it.

“Yes, I want to join him in borrowing RM1 trillion, and then manage to pay it all back. If he can tell me how, for example, like bringing back the money he is hiding, then we can pay our debt,” he sarcastically told reporters in Kuala Lumpur today.

Dr Mahathir was commenting on the former prime minister’s statement, made during a Facebook Live broadcast, that the Pakatan Harapan government should stop blaming him for the country’s economic woes.

Najib, who is Pekan MP, said Putrajaya should, instead, focus on finding ways to save Malaysia’s economy.

He also brought up his track record as prime minister from 2009 until May this year.

He said economic growth reached 5.9% last year, and the economy saw an average growth of 5.524% in his nine years at the helm.

“It is estimated that this year, the economy will grow at a rate of only 4.5%, and next year’s trend will also weaken.”

He said the size of the country’s economy was RM713 billion when he took over in 2009, and reached RM1.53 trillion when he left office.

The PH government is making many “flip flops, U-turns and rebranding”, he added. – October 31, 2018.