People want to know when exactly fuel prices will rise, says Hamzah
Opposition leader Hamzah Zainudin (left) asked Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim why Malaysia’s growth had slowed over the past 12 months while that of its major trading partners and neighbours had risen.
PETALING JAYA: Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s special address last night only widens the people’s mistrust of the government, says opposition leader Hamzah Zainudin.
“The elephant in the room that is not explained is: when will the rationalisation of the fuel subsidy be enforced and how will it be channelled to the people?
“The people want to know: when will the price of fuel actually go up? After months, this government is still practising the principle of ‘announce first, then think’.
“His message does not bring relief to the people, who are being squeezed by the increase in the cost of living. It confuses and angers them when it is served with rhetoric to justify Anwar’s failure to keep his promises before coming to power,” the Perikatan Nasional secretary-general said in a statement this evening.
Hamzah went on to query Anwar’s recent foreign direct investment (FDI) figures, which the prime minister reiterated in his address last night.
“The prime minister mentioned potential FDI hitting RM76.1 billion for the first quarter of 2024, but the reality is that net FDI for the first quarter of 2024 was only RM5.5 billion, a drop of more than 50% from the RM12 billion achieved for the same period in 2023.”
Hamzah added that Malaysia’s growth had slowed from 5.6% in 2023 to 4.2% in (the first quarter of) 2024, while that of its major trading partners and neighbours had risen.
Meanwhile, he said, the government’s debt and liabilities had increased by more than RM167 billion from RM1.399 trillion at the end of 2022 to RM1.567 trillion in the first quarter of 2024.
“This is contrary to the prime minister’s promises that the government will not increase the debt.
“It is strange that the prime minister says the economy in the first quarter of 2024 is encouraging when these figures show the opposite,” he said.