The Malaysian Insight

MALAYSIANS who have expressed their willingness to donate to the nation’s coffers to alleviate its RM1 trillion debt have been told to await official instructions from Putrajaya.

Pakatan Harapan lawmakers, who have been inundated with phone calls from voters offering to help, also cautioned Malaysians to be wary of scams.

“If anybody sees people soliciting money online on behalf of the government, it’s best not respond. Wait for an official announcement by the cabinet,” said Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh.

Speaking to reporters after a PH thanksgiving function at the How Lim Kong Temple in Kuala Lumpur today, the former Selangor speaker said she was heartened by debt reduction offers.

“We have informed Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng that many people want to donate money to help the country reduce its debt,” she said.

“We have communicated that to the cabinet to see how they (the people) can actually help, because everybody just wants to play their part.

“It’s actually very good because Malaysians are taking ownership of their country again. In the past, everybody just blamed everybody else and ran away.”

Fellow DAP leader, Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng, also said he was asked by hawkers and traders how to help.

“I just received a call from the Taman Tun Market Association. They want to donate to our country to repay the debt, so they asked me how to go about it.”

Yeoh said PH MPs were not able to handle donations at the moment.

“We are waiting to be sworn in, which should be at the end of June. Until we are sworn in, we cannot write letters or sign forms.”

“However, there are many other ways you can help the government. If you owe income tax or summonses, you can settle them.”

Last Tuesday, Guan Eng confirmed that the country’s debt was more than RM1 trillion, following a discovery exercise where government departments consolidated their accounts and numbers.

He added that he had also been informed that the ministry had been bailing out 1Malaysia Development Bhd with payments totalling RM6.98 billion since last year.

The government has guaranteed RM38 billion of 1MDB’s debt from the end of last year. – May 27, 2018.