Najib declines to allow Malaysians to condemn the PN government over the EPF.

PETALING JAYA: Former Prime Minister Najib Razak today refused to try to incite Malaysians to give individuals a one-off withdrawal of RM10,000 from their Employees Provident Fund (EPF) Account 1 and to extend the loan moratorium with his call for Putrajaya.

He said that he did not stand to benefit directly from these measures, adding that if these two conditions were not implemented, he had never urged the people to reject the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.

In addition to reacting to the needs of citizens experiencing suffering in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Najib said the two conditions for Barisan Nasional’s (BN) vote in favor of the 2021 budget were not populist measures, but economic strategies.

I think that as things change, people will be responsible for spending the money wisely and working hard to replace their retirement savings. Is it fair to refuse a lifeline to families only because there are fears that the money might be misused by some?

I think the funds injected by the two initiatives would help improve the economy and save more jobs. It’s not that I don’t have any experience or that I don’t grasp the economic problems of Malaysia.

He said in a Facebook post today, “If anyone can refute what I’ve written, then it’s only fair for you to accuse me of inciting or playing with people.”

The Pekan MP also reiterated that these measures were not impossible or difficult to implement, adding that the original six-month moratorium and the i-Lestari system for EPF Account 2 had already been introduced by Putrajaya earlier.

He said the EPF had RM940 billion worth of assets while banks were netting billions in income annually, which would not make it a challenge for them to enforce the proposals.

So far no one has answered my question about how the country can be saved by the 2021 budget to battle Covid-19, which is just 2.5 percent higher than the 2019 budget (without Covid-19), he said.