GE13 — The million dollar question

The 13th General Elections boils down to this million dollar question: Who do you trust to lead Malaysia?
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak himself had put this question across to the people when launching the BN manifesto on April 7.
He also compared himself with opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who has made no secret about wanting to be the next PM,  and thought he has an edge over the latter.
“I started as a backbencher before becoming a deputy minister, a minister, a menteri besar, the deputy prime minister, then prime minister,” Najib said.
He added that he has been in public service for 37 years, rising up the ranks bit by bit without back-stabbing anyone.
He said his edge over Anwar stemmed from experience, loyalty and trustworthiness.
With special mention of the 1997 financial crisis, Najib said Anwar was unable to prove his mettle as finance minister.
“He wanted to hand everything over to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). If it were that easy, all of you might as well be finance minister,” he added.
Sharing the same sentiments is a former finance minister Tun Daim Sainuddin who was worried for Malaysia during the 1997 financial crisis because he said Anwar “does not have the depth in economy.”
“I believe he will mess up the country by getting advice from the likes of the IMF (International Monetary Fund), the World Bank and Wolfowitz (Paul Wolfowitz, former World Bank president),” Daim said in a recent interview with a national daily.
He added: “He always needs people to tell him what to think and what to do.”
How does Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud rate Anwar?
“The rating is quite low – even in his party, the rating of him is low,” Taib told The Borneo Post team of journalists in an exclusive interview recently.

Anwar offered immediately to hand the country over to the IMF in time of financial crisis, he said, adding: “No, this is not the way. See what happened to Indonesia? It lost two million jobs as the factories were forced to be sold.”
Taib pointed out: “The first thing the World Bank will ask you to do is to pay your debts. It’s like asking people who are sick to pay the hospital bills first.
“They want to pay people in London, America, New York because they want to recoup their debts first. If you cannot clear your debts, they say you are bankrupt, so you are a failing state.”
Taib said the first thing to avoid is to let the country be a failing state.
“They don’t apply the same rule in Europe. They don’t push Greece, Portugal or Spain into a failing state.”
The Chief Minister said it was Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who saved the country’s economy by stepping in to institute currency-control measures.
“If you don’t control the flow of money, your currency goes down. We pegged it at 3.2. It used to be 2.5 (ringgit to US dollar).
“So our assets did not go down – people would continue to invest. We did not have to close down our factories with people losing jobs.”
What about Anwar’s track records – from his student days to being Education Minister, Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister?
To this question, Taib singled out the numerous policies in the national school curriculum introduced by Anwar that have hurt the Chinese community.
“Yet, he is now championing the cause of the Chinese community,” he chided.
Taib said during his tenure as Education Minister, Anwar’s policies included, among others, sending teachers who did not know Chinese to hold senior positions in Chinese schools, no development funds for Chinese schools and proposing to abolish boards of directors of Chinese schools.
In a recent interview with the media, Anwar admitted to hurting the Chinese community but he offered no apology.
According to Taib, it’s a timely wakeup call to all Malaysians not to buy Anwar’s self-proclamation of populist economic policies but to have reservations about him.
“When words are many, sin is not absent,” he added.