Press statement by DAP Secretary-General and MP For Bagan, Lim Guan Eng in Kuala Lumpur on 6 January 2021:

Political Instability And Poor Governance Is Not Helped By Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin Government’s Frequent Policy Flip-flops Or Broken Promises And Sheer Incompetence.

Malaysia’s sovereign credit ratings was downgraded by Fitch Ratings, from A- to BBB+ to the same level as Indonesia, due to chronic political instability and poor governance. Clearly Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has lost his parliamentary majority following threats from UMNO and public withdrawal of support from several UMNO MPs.

Political instability and poor governance is not helped by Muhyiddin government’s frequent policy flip-flops or broken promises and sheer incompetence.

Some of the prominent broken promises such as automatic extension of the bank loan moratorium, withdrawals of EPF contributions, increasing monthly welfare aid payments including the unemployed to RM1,000, proceeding with the KL-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) project and continuing with the iconic Penang ferry service.

Poor governance has led to grave doubts about Muhyiddin’s commitment towards accountability and transparency. This was highlighted by two policy changes of preferring negotiated tenders to open tenders, and appointment of unqualified politicians to head or be directors in Government-linked Corporations (GLCs) with public assets valued at tens of billions of ringgit.

Muhyiddin’s lack of commitment to open tenders took an international dimension following the revelations by Singapore’s Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung. Ong said that the main reason why both countries could not reach an agreement on the KL-Singapore HSR project was because Malaysia wanted to do away with the jointly-tendered asset company (AssetsCo). Ong added that through an open and transparent international tender, the AssetCo would have ensured accountability to both countries.

Similarly the problems of appointing unqualified politicians to replace professionals in GLCs is epitomised by Prasarana, where MACC is investigating abuse of power and conflict of interest by the Chairman. Whether MACC investigations are initiated due to political reasons or similar political motivations will lead to MACC abandoning their probe, will be keenly awaited by the public as a test of MACC’s independence and professionalism.

The government’s handling of the COVID-19 global pandemic, which has seen an alarming rise in infections, displays the sheer incompetence of the Ministers in fully backing the front-liners struggling to contain the public health crisis at the risk of their lives. Not just the Health Minister but the entire Cabinet should be responsible, especially for the delay in securing the vaccines.

At a time when Singapore had obtained delivery and beginning mass vaccinations, Malaysia still has to wait another 2 months. The excuse given that Malaysia does not have the financial resources like Singapore is ridiculous and unacceptable when the cost involved is RM2.1 billion.

As a former Finance Minister, let me state categorically that Malaysia can definitely find the RM 2.1 billion to secure early delivery of the vaccines. Such a stingy and miserly refusal to make available RM2.1 billon is a bigger blunder and more incompetent than Malaysia’s downgrade in sovereign credit ratings by Fitch recently.

Lim Guan Eng
DAP Secretary-General
MP for Bagan