Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad is not persuaded that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim can lead Malaysia as Prime Minister through the obstacles of post-pandemic recovery and the crises of economic recession.
Anwar's capacity to devise the best plan of action to resolve the situation worries the former prime minister, who also notes that the Pakatan Harapan (PH) Chairman appears to be concentrating on preserving the party's level of support in the Dewan Rakyat.
According to Dr. Mahathir, Anwar who was the Deputy Prime Minister at the time was unable to handle economic issues when he took office as acting Prime Minister in 1997.
"I took a two-month leave of absence after I was elected prime minister for the first time. Anwar, the Deputy Prime Minister (TPM), was appointed to serve as acting Prime Minister while I was on leave, but it appeared that he was unable to handle the situation."
Additionally, he claimed that Anwar, who was Malaysia's Finance Minister back then, was more inclined to heed the advice of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) than to find a solution when the financial crisis struck, which put Malaysia at risk of going bankrupt.
"Following that, there was a financial crisis that resulted in the depreciation of the Malaysian ringgit. Anwar was serving as the nation's finance minister at the time."
"He followed the recommendations of the IMF and the World Bank in his approach to the ringgit devaluation issue. I believe that if we adopt the IMF and the World Bank's policies, we would become bankrupt and be unable to carry out the economic policy of our nation."
"But Anwar has no other suggestions other than following the IMF and the World Bank, that's why I had to take over the duties of the Ministry of Finance. I'm looking for a way to save the country," he said in an exclusive interview with Berita Harian at the Perdana Leadership Foundation.
Asyiqin Razak is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav.
Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
Newswav is solely an aggregation platform and hosts the content. The views expressed and content above including media (pictures, videos, etc) were provided by the author. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
