Mustapa Mohamed (Jeli-BN) cited as an example PH’s claim that Barisan Nasional (BN) had “robbed” some RM18 billion meant for the goods and services tax (GST) when it was in power.
“There are two sides to this. One side says the money was stolen – we didn’t say this, it’s just an opinion. There are a lot of accusations too, by the police, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and so on.
“With permission Mr Speaker, this is not rocket science. We don’t need to know Add(itional) Math to understand this. This is just simple arithmetic, you plus here and there, like standard 1 or 2 Math. Don’t get confused.
“Everything is already here. The government on that side has all the information, and we on this side do not. We might make accusations because we don’t know everything, so please don’t get upset with us for this.
“When we were in the government, we could dig up these things, but now we can’t. But it’s not rocket science. The rakyat are confused – they want to know if we are bankrupt, is our economic condition stable,” the former international trade and industry minister said in Parliament today.
Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (Pasir Salak-BN) interrupted Mustapa at this point and said that it wasn’t just rocket science, but “the DAP rocket” at play, an obvious jibe at claims DAP was calling the shots for PH now that they were in government.
“They don’t have a fixed target, always going here and there,” Tajuddin said to roars of laughter.
“It’s an easy thing to discuss, but I just wanted to make it difficult,” Tajuddin added when interrupted by an MP who said that was not Mustapa’s point.
Tajuddin said back in the day, BN had made plans for mega projects for the rakyat’s benefit. But now that PH was doing away with many projects, they were denying Malaysia the chance to be a successful and first-world country.
At this point, Mustapa, an Umno Supreme Council member, chimed in and said PH could close all the banks in the country if they wanted to, but they needed to start solving the national debt issue.
“Let’s sit together, government and opposition, and discuss this issue of our country’s expenditure.”
Earlier, Mustapa said if a committee was formed to discuss these issues, then both sides could weigh in on what was the national deficit and what projects should be prioritised as both were involved at some point.
He said a scope of discussion should also be included, to be determined by the speaker.
Last week, a heated exchange took place between Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng (Bagan-PH) and opposition MPs when Lim announced that funds meant for GST refunds had gone missing.
Lim claimed the funds had been used for other purposes.
Earlier today, Lim claimed the shortfall was more than he had announced last week.
Khairy Jamaluddin (Rembau-BN) has since lodged a police report on the matter.
Former Treasury secretary-general Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah also lodged a report with the MACC, claiming the money was in a consolidated fund.
Earlier, RSN Rayer (Jelutong-PH) interrupted Mustapa to ask why Khairy had made a police report refuting claims BN had allegedly siphoned money but did not accuse PH of spending it.
“If the money was there during BN’s time, and now it is gone, why didn’t you accuse us of spending it? There are discrepancies in what the opposition is saying,” he said, pointing to how BN ministers had failed to answer this before.