Former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has continued his baseless attacks against me, not just on the revelation of the state of our country’s finances but also on my past record as Penang Chief Minister. Najib claimed my success in turning around the financial performance of Penang into the best in Malaysia, is due to the fact that I am an expert in selling government land.
Najib even falsely claimed that I had stated that the SST will result in price reduction of goods when he is unable to show any proof. I had stated that any price increases from SST will be less impactful than GST because the Federal government collects RM23 billion less taxes when GST was abolished. Imagine how price increases will be worse if GST was still in force, because taxpayers will have to pay the extra RM 23 billion.
There is a note of quiet desperation in Najib’s statements when he no longer relies on facts and figures but has started making personal attacks against me. The Federal government’s finances has not only been audited by the Auditor-General, confirmed by the Accountant-General but also not been refuted by international institutions.
Our Federal government debts has escalated to more than RM1 trillion due to the excesses, abuse of power and cover-up of the actual costs of the RM 50 billion 1MDB and other related financial scandals big and small, such as the RM9.4 billion pipeline scandal where 88% or RM8.3 billon was paid despite only 13% of work completion or the RM31.5 billion MRT3 project which was reduced by RM15 billion to a revised cost of RM16.5 billion.
Najib can not deny the cost escalation of mega projects such as East Coast Rail Link(ECRL) to RM 81 billion, the financial scandals in Felda or the unnecessary expense of approving a contract to install bullet-proof glass in the Finance Ministry of more than RM 6 million. Najib can also not deny that only RM450 million(confirmed by the Accountant-General) was left to the new government as at 30 April 2018 in the Consolidated Revenue Account when monthly payments of salaries or pensions amounted to RM8 billion, or BN’s failure to repay GST refunds of RM19.4 billion for more than 2 years, or BN’s failure to repay income tax refunds of RM16 billion stretching back over 6 years.
Najib is also wrong in stating that Penang’s remarkable financial performance over the last 10 years of annual budget surpluses, reduction in state debts by 90% and increase in asset reserves by 140% was due to land sales in Penang for profit. The Pakatan Penang government sold only 106 acres or 36 times less than the 3,661 acres of land sold by the previous BN government.
Despite Pakatan selling 36 times less of land, Pakatan still received more money than BN because land sales were sold by open tender instead of direct negotiations by BN. The revenue from land sales by the Pakatan government was used for affordable housing, leaving a remaining sum amounting to only 10.4% of state expenditure. So, it is not true that state government revenue and surpluses came solely from land sales.
For instance, prime reclaimed land near Gurney Drive in Penang was sold by BN at RM1 per square feet and 10% of reclaimed land given to the state government. Under the Pakatan Penang government, the 10% reclaimed land was renegotiated and increased to 20% to the state government. Similarly, reclaimed land near Butterworth was sold by the previous BN government for only 5% of the reclaimed land to be given to the state government. Again, the Pakatan government renegotiated and increased the price of reclaimed land for Butterworth from 5% to 35% or 7 times more, of land to be given to the state government.
Unfortunately for BN, the 1MDB scandal cost Malaysians RM50 billion without any benefit to the people, whether in the form of cash or land assets to show. The Pakatan government will not mortgage the country to foreigners and will not engage in sales of government assets at cheap rates but ensure that we get the best value through an open tender process.