PRIME Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the country under the stewardship of the Pakatan Harapan government will not fall into bankruptcy despite the enormous government debt that has been chalked up by the previous administration.

“Had the previous government won in the election, there would be a risk of bankruptcy,” Dr Mahathir told a room of foreign journalists at the Japan National Press Club Dialogue.

In response to a question on how the country plans to manage its RM1 trillion debt, Dr Mahathir said a combination of experience and sufficient savings in the country’s coffers would steer the country out of its current economic crisis.

“Malaysia is fortunate that it has huge savings, we have the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), for example, which has a lot of money, and there are many other institutions which have a lot of money,” he said.

“We have had lots of experience handling financial crisis. As you know in 1997, we had a very terrible financial crisis and we got out of that.

“We feel that we know something about the finance of a country, which will enable us to claw back and regain our financial strength, as it was before.

“I don’t think under this government, the country will slide into bankruptcy.” – The Malaysian Insight, June 11, 2018