During his June 19 interview with Astro Awani, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah claimed the transparency practiced by the Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng had caused “people to sell their shares.” He said it was not necessary to make public the full details of the federal government’s debt.
Firstly, as already emphasized by the Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the Pakatan Harapan government will not be one to lie to the people and betray their trust in us. We will not succumb to the obsessive tendency to hide the truth from the public, which has in turn resulted in corrupt practices to astronomical proportions.
The need to hide the truth assumes and presumes either guilt, of which the new Pakatan Harapan Government has none; or that Malaysians are too stupid to understand and comprehend the truth, which our Government certainly do not subscribe to.
This new Government believes that Malaysians have a right to the truth, regardless of whether the truth is painful or otherwise. It is when the Government make transparency an integral part of its administration, Malaysia’s future can be protected because we can take the necessary steps to rectify any misdeeds or wrongdoings.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, Tengku Razaleigh is at best ignorant, or at worst, deceitful in placing the blame of falling stock market on the Finance Minister’s exposes.
Shouldn’t a candidate for the UMNO President be well aware of the fact that global equity markets have been falling in the past few days due to various external factors, including the political crisis in Italy, the apparent China-US trade war and the prospect of further rate hikes in the US?
In fact, the KL Composite has been one of the least affected to date. For the month of June up until the 19th, the equity market in Bangkok, Singapore, Seoul and Hong Kong had all fallen by 5.0%, 4.2%, 3.6% and 3.3% respectively. Would Tengku Razaleigh blame Lim Guan Eng’s exposés for their fall as well?
In contrast, the KLCI had fallen by only 1.5% in the same period. Would Tengku Razaleigh then praise the Finance Minister for the ‘performance’ instead?
Regardless, the government is not overly concerned about short term fluctuation of the stock market. The Government is rightly more interested in the long term growth of our economy based on solid, transparent and truthful foundations, which will ultimately translate to the continued appreciation of the stock markets.