PN Chairman Muhyiddin Yassin has stressed that PN will not play up 3R issues of race, religion and royalty, in the forthcoming elections in six states but focus on economic issues and the cost of living. To-date, PN leaders have criticised the unity government for causing the low value of our ringgit but not put forward any concrete solutions to revive our economy other than the deplorable and dodgy suggestions of giving out funds to Malaysians by printing money and banning the application of interest rates in our financial system.
The depreciation of the ringgit to a low of RM4.68 against the US dollar, belies Malaysia’s sterling GDP growth of 5.6% in the first quarter of 2023, the best in ASEAN, and inflation moderating to a 3 year low of 2.8% in May, the lowest since May 2022. Even though the ringgit has still not dipped to its lowest level of RM4.75 last year under the PN government, the current weak value of the ringgit is a matter of great concern and public importance. This is the principal issue that the new Bank Negara Governor Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour, as the custodian of USD113 billion in foreign exchange reserves, must address.
Malaysia has developed an Islamic syariah financial system without interest rates that is the best in the world. This syariah financial system is compatible and operates in parallel with an interest-based financial system prevalent in our global economy. The proposal by PAS and PN of banning interest rates will cause havoc with our financial system and will wreck our economy with huge job losses from the banking, insurance, capital and share markets forced to close down.
Can PN explain how their irresponsible economic policies of printing money and banning interest rates can help to reduce our cost of living, strengthen growth and revitalise the value of our Ringgit? Distributing helicopter money as suggested by a Bersatu leader, is widely discredited with the traumatic German experience of a super-hyperinflation in the 1920s, leading to the rise of Aldolf Hitler and Nazism. Such irresponsible economic policies and playing up on 3R issues makes PN a clear and present danger to the political stability, national unity, racial cooperation, religious harmony, prosperity and economic progress of Malaysia.