BN must be allowed to explain conflicting debt figure in Parliament

PETALING JAYA: Until the RM1 trillion national debt – as claimed by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng – is presented to Parliament, it is unfair to dispute the figure given by then Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak.
Najib, who was also the Finance Minister then, had told the Dewan Rakyat in a written reply last year that the federal government's debt position stood at RM685.1 billion as of June 2017.
However, in a damning revelation on Tuesday, Lim said the country's debt has surpassed RM1 trillion, contributed largely by the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) financial scandal and mega projects by the previous government.
Former World Bank economist Dr Lim Teck Ghee said any dispute over the conflicting figures would be cleared once it is presented in parliament when it reconvenes, and that the opposition coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) must be allowed to explain itself.
"Hopefully, the figure provided by the Finance Ministry is the actual figure of the country's debt situation is. But I think we need to wait for these details to come out when parliament reconvenes.
"Surely there will be clarifications. We need to ensure that this official figure is discussed in parliament, and the current opposition will have its chance to explain. This will be cleared up shortly," he told theSun today.
In commending the government for being transparent about the nation's financial situation, Lim urged that such transparency is applied across all other government statistics.
"Whether it is the financial sector, involves investments or in terms of education, it should be applied across the board. We need to make sure that we are not selective on the statistics we provide, portraying only the good situations we are in," he said.
Pakatan Harapan lawmaker Ong Kian Ming said the debt figure given by the Finance Ministry should be released first before any comments could be made.
Meanwhile, former Cabinet minister Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz said he was not aware that the national debt has surpassed the trillion mark, and that he was in the dark over the matter.
"We were only informed of that RM685 billion figure," he told theSun when asked if the Cabinet had any knowledge that the debt stood at RM1 trillion.
"What (figure) was reported to us was that amount. I don't know about the other ministers, but I'm not aware of the RM1 trillion claim," he added.