In a blog article, Kadir noted that many people had argued that Lim had gone too far and had hit out too hard with regard to the figures, an argument that Jasin agreed with.
His comment came a day after Lim faced international and domestic criticism and a sarcastic response from former prime minister Najib Razak, who “congratulated” him on spooking the financial and stock markets.
Najib followed up last night on Twitter by sarcastically noting the dramatic turnaround of the economy, from going to ruin during the election campaign, and being in good shape within days of Pakatan Harapan taking office.
Kadir, in his blog article yesterday, said that, in his opinion, Lim had “overplayed the nation’s debt too much”, although the new Pakatan Harapan goverment had found “the previous goverment had lied about our finances”.
He said Najib, who was also finance minister, had previously only revealed the federal government’s official debt but had not spoken about the other debts and liabilities of government agencies that had been guaranteed by the federal government.
When both figures were added, the amount was much larger and that is where Lim was at fault, said Kadir.
“He was too excited in discovering these facts that actually proved that PH had been right all along, but he forgot the implications of his revelations.”
Kadir reminded ministers and their officers to be more careful when making statements to the press.
“Political mileage is not the same as economic mileage and what is good for politics is not necessarily good for the economy and market,” he said.
PH leaders needed to think carefully when carrying out their reforms.
“We no longer have to sensationalise or scream from the top of a mountain any more, we are now the goverment. We must punish all the culprits of the previous administration but it has to be through the rule of law,” he said.
Last night, Najib took a swipe at Lim and Pakatan, following up on a statement on Thursday when he sarcastically complimented Lim for spooking the markets.
On Twitter, Najib compared PH leaders’ election campaign rhetoric, that the economy has heading to ruin, against their current statements that the economy was in good shape. He sarcastically “congratulated” PH for the dramatic turnaround of the economy within days of them taking office.