The appointment of Zafrul, even though is into a new Ministry, this time as the Minister of International Trade and Industry by Anwar, is like the definition of insanity.
His track record as the Finance Minister under 2 different Prime Ministers that governed the country for the last 3 years already left much to be desired.
The rakyat was left bewildered with his explanation on the settlement that the country made with Goldman Sachs in an interview with a business weekly in Aug 2020 when he was the Finance Minister.
His claim that the settlement sum was a much better deal appears to be belittled when the New York Post reported that the CEO of Goldman Sachs celebrated the settlement with a big party on the same weekend with Euromoney reporting that Goldman had agreed a deal with the Malaysians that was worth celebrating.
As a Finance Minister, the people would have expected him to lead the charge to secure a better deal.
His rationale that the settlement sum agreed upon by the existing Attorney General is more than what the preceding Attorney General was looking at earlier appears to be an attempt to show the public and the gullible rakyat that he negotiated a better deal for the country.
At one point the Malaysian government had been seeking $7.5 billion from Goldman over the 1MDB scandal – the entire $6.5 billion in debt that the bank helped to raise for the state funding vehicle, plus $1 billion in interest.
Instead, on July 24, Goldman announced that it would pay Malaysia $2.5 billion in cash and guarantee another $1.4 billion from sales of 1MDB assets that have been seized.
In Sept 2022, the present Prime Minister, Anwar himself was quoted to have said that he is too lazy to ask Zafrul a lot of questions in Parliament because Anwar doesn’t think Zafrul’s answers, which defend the banks and not the people are of those that should be given by a responsible Finance Minister.
Earlier, in December 2020, while debating the Supply (Budget) Bill 2021 in the Dewan Rakyat, Anwar even described Zafrul as a victim of politicians because on the surface, the Finance Minister claimed he sympathizes with the people and thus the government is allocating RM300 to a fisherman but for a NGO, which was a political tool for certain groups of politicians to continue their propaganda, Zafrul allocated a grant of more than RM80 million to them.
Speaking at the Youth Economic Forum 2022 held at Sasana Kijang in Bank Negara in late Oct 2022, Zafrul was quoted to have told the youths of today to choose wisely and not to gamble with the future of our country by leaving it in the hands of others.
The people and the youths are extremely disappointed with Anwar for gambling away our future by appointing Zafrul as the Minister of International Trade and Industry in your government.
And in an interview with Euromoney in Dec 2019, Anwar told the interviewer that Goldman Sachs has to pay. To quote, Anwar declares in the interview that it’s just not what was taken but also what the country lost.
It is obvious Goldman doesn’t care about what Anwar thinks as they reached a settlement with Zafrul few months down the road at a much reduced sum.
It is an insult to those people of Kuala Selangor that the Member of Parliament voted by them is not included in Anwar’s cabinet but the opponent that Dr Dzukifli Ahmad defeated is now going to be made a Senator and appointed as a full minister in an important portfolio in the new government.
Just like how you described him in his previous portfolio, can you assure the rakyat that in this new portfolio, he would be thinking of the people and not the businesses?
Anwar, you just cut into your own credibility with those who voted for Pakatan.
Pray that the cut does not turn into a bigger tear further down the line.
