“Being stronger together, our economy can ‘roar’ again and Malaysians will once more be respected globally,” DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said in his New Year message today.
Lim, who is also the finance minister, said the Pakatan Harapan government, by practising a clean administration through its CAT (competent, accountable and transparent) governance, had saved RM1.6 billion by the end of 2018.
This money had been disbursed and shared with civil servants, rubber tappers, smallholders, Felda settlers and parents earning less than RM3,000 a month.
More importantly, the B40 lower-income group would, for the first time, enjoy free health insurance protection in the form of a one-off payout of RM8,000 spread over a yet to be determined time-frame, and yearly 14-day hospitalisation income of RM50 a day or RM700 annually.
With the dawn of the new year, he said “Malaysians had much to celebrate for making a once-in-a-lifetime change in government for the first time in 61 years”.
“While endemic corruption and abuse of power were among the reasons for the victory of the PH coalition in the May 9 polls, the real reason is still the economic hardship suffered by the people, caused by failed policies, crony capitalism and the infamous 1MDB financial scandal,” he said.
Looking back on the past year, Lim said the PH government under the leadership of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had notched up some clear successes.
“Malaysia liberated itself from being the symbol of global kleptocracy by seeking full accountability for the 1MDB scandal, pursuing the return of stolen money and prosecuting those responsible,” he said.
“The GST (goods and services tax) was replaced by the SST (sales and services tax).
“About RM19.4 billion in unpaid GST refunds will finally be returned to taxpayers in 2019, after a two-year delay after the previous government refused to pay back the money.”
Lim said despite the shortfall in funds resulting from the removal of the GST, financial damage caused by the 1MDB scandal and a RM1 trillion debt that it inherited, the PH government still managed to continue its welfare assistance programme to those in need.
He noted that the previous government had paid RM8.3 billion, or 88% of the work value of a pipeline project that was only 10% completed.
“Petrol prices and highway toll hikes were frozen and not allowed to increase. For the first time, government civil servants got their special year-end payments in the same year and not the following year.”
Lim said the government requires three years to restore its fiscal health and take its place as the “most promising emerging economy to achieve high-income status”.
“Already Bloomberg has placed Malaysia as No. 1 among the top 20 emerging economies in the world.
“Despite having to clean up the financial mess caused by the previous government, all three international credit ratings agencies have maintained Malaysia’s ratings.”
He said this vote of confidence was evidenced by the resurgent growth in exports last October. It was a historic high in a single month of RM96.4 billion and a record trade surplus of RM16.3 billion.
Approved foreign direct investments (FDI) in the manufacturing sector also increased from May to September by RM27.7 billion, or 379%. FDI went up from RM7.3 billion in 2017 to RM35 billion in 2018.
Lim added that in the midst of the “poisonous politics of polarisation, exploiting racism and religious extremism that threatens our Malaysian polity”, PH was the only political coalition that could represent all Malaysians.