UMNO leaders Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Najib Razak are competing to be popular by pressuring the government to allow people to withdraw more of their Employees Provident Fund (EPF) savings before retirement, said Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming.

He said Najib’s past actions involving the EPF when he was prime minister showed that he had only his own self-interest and not the people’s welfare at heart.

“Najib has shown that he only has the interests of himself and his cronies and not the interest of EPF and its members when he approved the purchase of Eagle High Point (EHP) by FGV (Felda Global Ventures) back in 2015/2016 at a grossly inflated value,” Ong said, referring to the national plantation company’s RM2.3 billion acquisition of Indonesian company Eagle High Plantation in 2015.

EPF, which has a stake in FGV, had expressed concern over the purchase of the company owned by Indonesian tycoon Peter Sondakh, said be a “close friend” of Najib’s.

Now, Najib and Zahid are calling for more early EPF withdrawals to b allowed while fully aware that 3.6 million contributors have less than RM1,000 in their accounts to see them through their old age, said Ong.

“Out of (this), 2 million are Bumiputera members (55%), an indication that he (Najib) is not thinking of the long-term interests of EPF contributors, including the Bumiputera community.

“Both Najib and Zahid are more concerned about saving themselves from going to jail as a result of the corruption charges against them than to help the rakyat who are suffering,” 

“I would not be surprised if they resort to more and more populist measures to fool the rakyat into thinking that they trying to save the people but in reality, it’s all about trying to save themselves.”

Najib recently called on the government to allow one more round of withdrawals under the i-Citra scheme, the third in a series of emergency withdrawal schemes to enable the people to weather the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ong said he hoped to see reasonable voices in the Umno leadership challenge the duo’s repeated calls to let people drain the retirement savings, which will have serious long term personal implications for them, especially the B40 group.

EPF has expressed worry over the withdrawals in view of the fact that many account holders already do not have enough savings for retirement.

It has responded to the calls that more withdrawals with the statement that the EPF Act 1991 does not provide for withdrawals for natural disasters.

It said the law stipulates that the Account 1 (70% of savings) is designated for retirement, while Account 2 (30%) is for discretionary withdrawals aimed at securing the future of the account holder.

The i-Lestari, i-Sinar and i-Citra withdrawals in the last two years were exceptions, it said, which were allowed to meet urgent cash flow needs during the lockdowns and Covid-induced economic slowdown. – January 5, 2022.