Ex-Malaysian envoy’s article full of wild, unsubstantiated 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 per cent in 2009 to three per cent last year.

On his claims that “And while Kuala Lumpur has more millionaires than Abu Dhabi, 90 per cent 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 per cent 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. — Bernama