THINGS don’t always go as planned, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today about the government’s latest fiasco surrounding the National Higher Education Fund Corporation and Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik’s performance.

“Sometimes, the things that we don’t expect to happen, happen. 

“For example, we didn’t expect Pakatan Harapan to win the election. People make mistakes. Sometimes, things happen that they didn’t expect. A person walks out and he gets hit by a car. Sorry,” he said at a press conference after chairing a PH presidential council meeting in Petaling Jaya today.

He was asked whether Maszlee’s performance would be reviewed as a result of the latest about-turn on PTPTN’s loan repayment scheme, which was suspended two days after it was announced.

The scheme – which would have started in January – would have deducted between 2% and 15% from the salaries of PTPTN borrowers, depending on their monthly income, starting from RM2,000.

The plan was announced by fund chairman Wan Saiful Wan Jan on Wednesday but the cabinet yesterday suspended it until all stakeholders had been engaged.

Dr Mahathir said a modified repayment scheme would be announced soon.

“There were a lot of protests. We had to take into consideration the opinion of the people. Because of the protests, we want to modify it and we will announce it soon.”

On criticism that the PH government is a “U-turn government”, he replied: “Sometimes, when we go the wrong way, we turn around. But only if necessary.

“We are not perfect people. Even though most of us are angels, even angels make mistakes. So, when angels make mistakes, they turn around.” 

Maszlee and Wan Saiful, both from Bersatu, have often been the target of criticism from the opposition since the new government came to power over PTPTN issues, beginning with PH’s failure to keep its election promise to allow borrowers to repay their loans only when they started earning RM4,000 and above. – December 8, 2018.