Saturday, April 27, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR: The 13th General Election is a choice between a reforming government that has boosted growth and a fractious opposition that could bring “catastrophic ruin” for the country, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak told Bloomberg in an interview published yesterday.

In the interview, Najib said Barisan Nasional remained “cautiously optimistic” of achieving the two-thirds majority in Parliament, recapturing all the states that it lost and that he would use the strong mandate to continue with the transformation agenda to make Malaysia “a fully matured democratic and economically-competitive nation”.

Najib said he would like to accelerate the reform process to move the nation forward, but stressed that any change should be managed properly.

“Change, if not managed in a way, can lead to a disastrous outcome,” he said. “Countries that have been going through the Arab Spring, now many people are saying it’s the Arab Winter because the dividends for the change they expected have been very disappointing.”

Najib also warned of dire consequences for the Malaysian financial markets if Pakatan Rakyat wins the May 5 election.

The opposition’s promises would be “horrendous for Malaysia in terms of results”, he said. “The market, the currency, would take a very sharp decline.”

The ringgit has strengthened by 1.8 per cent against the US dollar since Najib announced the dissolution of Parliament on April 3, paving the way for the election. Nomination has been set for tomorrow.

Stocks on Bursa Malaysia have also performed better since then. The benchmark Kuala Lumpur Composite Index climbed to a new all-time high when trading closed at 1,710.97 points on Wednesday.

Financial services group MIDF Investment Research said last week that within a week after the polling and nomination dates were announced, foreign investors bought RM747 million worth of Malaysian equities in the open market (excluding off-market deals).

Among the seven Asian markets, Malaysia was the clear gainer for the third week running, hauling a net US$246 million (RM746 million) via the open market (excluding off-market deals).

“Kuala Lumpur is going against the tide,” MIDF said in its research report on fund flows for the week ending April 12.

Bloomberg noted that Najib, an industrial economics graduate, came into office in 2009, when the economy was in recession.

The economy has weathered the global slowdown, expanding more than four per cent in each of the 13 quarters to the end of last year, helped by domestic demand and investment, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The budget deficit narrowed from 6.6 per cent of GDP in 2009 to 4.5 per cent last year and is expected to shrink to 4 per cent this year, as the government seeks to balance the budget by 2020, according to Pemandu.

“Under BN, we’ve always had a current account surplus,” Najib said.

If the opposition “were to deliver all their populist, but reckless policies, it would lead to an immediate current account deficit, which means they’d be borrowing to pay for salaries and subsidies”.

By www.nst.com.my