Ex-envoy's article full of wild accusations – Anifah
PUTRAJAYA: Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman has come up with rebuttals to an article by a former Malaysian ambassador Datuk Dennis Ignatius, saying the rant contained "full of wild but unsubstantiated accusations, based on anger but devoid of facts, opinions masquerading as facts".
Citing an example from Ignatius' ‘GE14: Last Chance for Change' article which claimed that the government had been extraordinarily incompetent and reckless fiscally, he pointed out that the fiscal deficit had been reduced by more than half, from 6.7 percent in 2009 to three percent last year.
On his claims that “And while Kuala Lumpur has more millionaires than Abu Dhabi, 90 percent of rural, mostly Malay households, have zero savings”, Anifah said it was not surprising that Kuala Lumpur had more millionaires than Abu Dhabi as Malaysia's economy was doing extraordinarily well, and Malaysia's population was 31 million as compared to the UAE's 1.4 million.
"As for the 90 percent figure, this hardly makes sense. Any worker in Malaysia would have at least either an EPF (Employees Provident Fund) account or a pension. Furthermore, the government is also trying to improve financial education,” he said in a statement here yesterday, to rebut Ignatius' article dated March 21, 2018.
Anifah also questioned Ignatius' claims in the article that "the majority of young workers cannot earn enough to live decently”.
"I wonder where he received this information. I also question his use of terms such as ‘majority' and ‘live decently'.
"We all recognise that unless one is blessed with wealthy parents, all young workers face challenging situations, but for many young Malaysians, our quiet heroes, they continue with the business of life, improving themselves and our country,” he noted.
Anifah also told Ignatius that his untoward criticisms of the government, his constant griping and whining of the good old days were not at all well received by officers at Wisma Putra.
"They are proud of Wisma Putra's achievements, as I am, of all of them. They are proud of the investments flowing into the country, which are due to high level visits, especially the Prime Minister's,” he said.
He pointed out that between 2011 and 2017, RM1.8 trillion worth of investments were recorded, surpassing the initial National Transformation Programme (NTP) Roadmap's target of RM1.4 trillion.
Anifah said Wisma Putra was proud that under Malaysia's chairmanship, the ASEAN Community was established in 2015 and that ASEAN continued to play a pivotal role in the region despite very many strategic challenges.
“Malaysia's relations with our neighbours and the major powers are at an all-time high, enabling us to derive economic benefits and play a more active and constructive role in strategic affairs,” he added.
Despite having already served as non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Malaysia garnered 187 out of 194 votes in the elections in 2014, guaranteeing its membership in 2015–2016, he said.
"This is proof and validation of the high esteem that the entire international community holds for our country.
“I could go on, but in all honesty, I have a job to do. Spending too much time on blogs such as these distracts the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from its important job of defending the nation's interest,” said Anifah, adding that too much time on blogs would not do justice to the very many hardworking, creative and patriotic people at Wisma Putra.
On former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's uturns, where Ignatius argued that there "is every indication that he will honour his commitment to ‘reformasi', it is his last hurrah and he wants to get it right”, the Foreign Minister said this was incredible in its naiveté and shallowness.
"There is nothing to show that this is the case; Tun Dr Mahathir only wants to give the indication that the wrongs of the past were not his doings – he was merely following advice. He has given no indication that he would change. Is this the attitude of a reformed man, committed to ‘reformasi'?,” he asked.
On Ignatius' argument that “in any case, Anwar (PKR adviser), Mat Sabu (Parti Amanah Negara president) and Lim Kit Siang (DAP leader) will be there to ensure that no one hijacks the reform agenda”, Anifah said what this meant was that were the opposition to win, all their time and energies would be dedicated to check one another, guaranteeing instability and chaos for five years.