The minister was responding to Dennis Ignatius’ recent blog post titled “GE14: Last Chance for Change”.

He said it was rife with “wild but unsubstantiated accusations, based on anger but devoid of facts, opinions masquerading as facts”.

In a statement, Anifah cited examples of Ignatius’ claims that Putrajaya had been extraordinarily incompetent and fiscally reckless, arguing that Malaysia’s fiscal deficit had been reduced by more than half from 6.7% to 3% between 2009 to 2017, after Prime Minister Najib Razak took office.

Anifah, who is also Kimanis MP, questioned how Ignatius came to the conclusion that 90% of rural, mostly Malay households, had zero savings and that the majority of young workers could not earn enough to live a decent life.

He said many in Wisma Putra didn’t take kindly to Ignatius’ “constant griping and whining”, and that they were proud of the ministry and the government’s achievements, from drawing in trillions in investments over the years to the setting up of the Asean community under Malaysia’s chairmanship in 2015, among others.

Anifah also criticised Ignatius’ political analysis, particularly on Pakatan Harapan prime ministerial candidate Dr Mahathir Mohamad honouring his commitment to reforms.

He said the Ignatius’ view showed “incredible naivety and shallowness”.

“There is nothing to show that this is the case. Tun Dr Mahathir only wants to give the indication that the wrongs of the past were not his doings, he was merely following advice. He has given no indication that he will change.

“Is this the attitude of a reformed man, committed to ‘reformasi’?” Anifah asked.

“If he (Ignatius) was still in service and this analysis was included in his political report, that report would be thrown immediately into the garbage can.”