Mohamed Hanipa Maidin has expressed disagreement with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s call to end the political salvos against the declining ringgit.
The former Amanah lawmaker said this goes against freedom of speech and therefore is unconstitutional and undemocratic.
“It does not reflect a reformasi culture which PMX (Anwar) used to propagate and promote,” he added.
On social media, Hanipa, who served as deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department during the Pakatan Harapan administration, termed the request as “inconceivable, irrational and illogical”.
“The government does not have to worry about political attacks, it can always respond to the attacks,” he added.
Over the weekend, Anwar, who is also the finance minister, said the issue should not be turned into a “political punching bag”.
The prime minister, who has come under intense criticism over the issue, said the government is making efforts to improve the situation and ensure that the currency rebounds.
“We are looking for ways to fix this, and not turn it (ringgit decline) into a political punching bag,” he said.
Anwar also noted that other Asean currencies were declining as well with the Singaporean dollar being the sole currency in the region bucking the trend.
The ringgit has been hovering around the RM4.77 to RM4.78 mark compared to the US dollar in the past few days of trading.
In 2017, Anwar – then the de facto opposition leader – had also criticised his predecessor, Najib Abdul Razak’s administration over the declining ringgit.
He had said that the weak ringgit was directly connected to the negative perception in the management of the country’s economy. – Malaysiakini