POLITICAL stability is key for Malaysia to move forward to become a high income nation, former prime minister Najib Razak said today but Anwar Ibrahim asserted that for the country to move forward, its management must be overhauled.

This was the first time Najib and PKR president Anwar had debated publicly in front of 400 people at the Malaysian Tourism Centre (MaTic) in Kuala Lumpur.

Najib said the Covid-19 pandemic has presented Malaysians an opportunity to reset and reinstall investors’ confidence in the country.

“The challenge is real. Inflation, supply chain issues, these are all global issues. We can reset and set the goal of making Malaysia a high income nation,” Najib said.

Anwar, however, shot back that for the country to move forward, the management of the country must be overhauled.

“What is the goal of political stability? For what? Is it to maintain the status quo or to self-enrich?

“It all starts with how we manage the country. We need to get rid of the rot of corruption. We are haunted by it along with abuse of power,” Anwar said.

“It is systemic and it must be handled well. Corruption is at its worst.”

Najib said that in order to take care of the wellbeing of the people, the economy has to improve, which is where mega projects such as the East Coast Rail Line (ECRL), the High Speed Rail (HSR) and the Pan Borneo Highway projects come in.

“To quote the late Abdul Razak Hussein, the economy is like a cake. We can make the cake bigger with these projects. When it is big enough, we can share it with the people,” the Pekan MP said.

Anwar, however, questioned how the “cake” can be distributed equally among all without benefitting certain parties.

“If we make the cake bigger, who decides how it will be equally divided among all?,” Anwar questioned.

Najib also said that had the goods and services tax (GST) not been scrapped in 2018, Malaysia would have collected RM30 billion which could now be used to provide handouts and subsidies to the people.

“If we had the GST, the people would be better off now. We would have RM30 billion and we could have used this to help the people, farmers and fishermen. We could have given more subsidies,” he said.

Anwar, while he agreed that the GST was an efficient system, said that it was not right to take from the people when they are suffering.

“The people are already suffering, we can’t collect more tax from them. They don’t have enough to get by.

“The GST needs to be looked into again and brought to parliament to be debated,” he said.

In attendance at the debate were several Umno leaders including Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, its secretary-general Ahmad Maslan, supreme council member Puad Zakarshi and Noh Omar.

In Anwar’s corner, Pandan lawmaker Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was seated in the front row, along with DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke, Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil and Taiping MP Nga Kor Ming. – May 13, 2022.
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