Several economic achievements under Anwar’s administration.
Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli today rejected a suggestion by an opposition member of parliament (MP) that the position of finance minister and prime minister should not be held by the same person, and that a full-time finance minister must be appointed.
Rafizi also rejected claims that a current economic recovery failure, made by certain quarters, was due to the prime minister also holding the finance minister post.
“The best person to be the finance minister is the prime minister, to ensure transparent procurement processes, avoiding issues that happened under previous administrations,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Rafizi (Harapan-Pandan) was answering a supplementary question by Muhyiddin Yassin (PN-Pagoh), who claimed that the rakyat and analysts are not confident in Anwar’s capability to revive Malaysia’s economy.
Because of this, Muhyiddin suggested that Anwar should hand over the finance minister’s role to another person, to which Rafizi disagreed.
According to Rafizi, the responsibility to restructure Malaysia’s economy and work towards its recovery falls on the whole cabinet.
“The duties to manage and revive the economy are not the sole responsibilities of the Finance Ministry or its minister. It is the duty of all cabinet ministers.”
In refuting Muhyiddin’s claim, Rafizi listed several economic achievements under Anwar’s administration.
He said Malaysia has recorded quarterly economic growth for three consecutive periods which “has never happened before”, including when PN was leading the government.
“Poverty is at the lowest level today, salary increase is higher than before, the economy is growing, inflation is low.
“So, which part is Pagoh (Muhyiddin) referring to when he said the rakyat has lost confidence? Because we are seeing that the confidence is improving, including the (amount of) investments that are coming in.
“It is okay if Pagoh and PN are not confident, but don’t abuse the rakyat and investors’ names (as an excuse),” Rafizi said.