Thursday, February 16, 2023

The lies in Muhyiddin's denial and seemingly consistent narrative

Expectedly no response from Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on the 1MDB settlement from Goldman allegation. Its customary for politician to not response to allegations to avoid from being misconstrued. Better remain silent and hope it will go away.

Give time Muhyiddin will eventually respond as it could be a significant contribution to his GE15 war chest. He will on the 5G contract to Ericson and continuing the SPANCO privatisation to Robert Tan.   

Last Thursday, Muhyiddin responded to the allegation of his family involvement in the NIISE contract to Iris. It is his standard denial which include diverting responsibility to others. Having written extensively on the deal, it is not a convincing denial. 

If they could, MACC should comb the historical shareholding structure of 5S, trace the present and past shareholders, and association of Nexbis Soluions and S5 Systems. Who decided on the technical prequalification on Bestari.net?      

A contributor, FLK asked on newswave.com, "Opinion: On why MACC stop at possible abuse of power in connection to the NIISE?

Muhyiddin is known for the consistency of his narratives but to the familiar, it is a convenient camouflage to lie and habit of "what he say is not what he do".  

Muhyiddin was caught lying incessantly on the RM600 billion stimulus package. He was reluctant to response and had Dr Marzuki to do so only to expose him lying in his capacity as Prime Minister. 

FLK wrote on newswav.com, below:

MUHYIDDIN'S WEB OF LIES ON THE RM600 BILLION STIMULUS PACKAGES

FLK 

Sunday Feb 12, 2024 MYT 11:00 AM

On 12 Apr 2021, the 8th Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said during a Vaisakhi celebration event with the Sikh community in Petaling Jaya said Putrajaya’s coffers are depleting after the government allocated more than RM600 billion for Budget 2021 and other stimulus packages to help Malaysians weather the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said that even though he is not good at calculation, the amount adds to a big sum of money, more than RM600 billion. (NST)

On 5 Dec 2022, in response to a police report that was lodged against him by Hulu Langat MP Mohd Sany Hamzan that Muhyiddin misappropriated funds amounting to RM600 billion, he said, in a Facebook post that probably the allegations is with regards to the eight Economic Stimulus Packages worth RM530 billion that he implemented when he was prime minister, of which most of it was non-fiscal and does not involve government expenditure.

He explained that in the finance minister’s statement on 29 June 2021, the expenditure involving government funds in the form of fiscal injections is worth RM83 billion, which includes RM5 billion spending on the purchase of vaccines and direct cash assistance such as wage subsidies worth RM20.92 billion, Bantuan Prihatin National (RM18.2 billion), Geran Khas Prihatin (RM4.21 billion), Geran Khas Prihatin Permai (RM842 million), and the Bumiputera Easy Financing Scheme (RM500 million). (NST)

Research house IDEAS in a research report as reported by a business weekly said it found that only 23% or RM79 billion of the RM340 billion worth of stimulus packages passed, came directly from the government, and of that, only RM65 billion or 20% of the total stimulus package were direct expenditures. (TEM)

Meanwhile, only RM1 billion were direct revenue losses to the government balance sheet as a result of payment exemptions.

IDEAS said the largest initiative in the stimulus packages was the moratorium on loan repayments – which only have a temporary effect on the balance sheets of the banks, as it is a deferral of payments rather than any direct payments or exemptions - which took up 30% of the stimulus packages at RM100 billion.

Earlier on Mar 27, 2021, Muhyiddin announced an economic stimulus package worth RM250 billion, with RM128 billion to be spent on public welfare, RM100 billion to support SMEs, while RM2 billion will be used to strengthen the country's economy. The remaining included the RM20 billion economic stimulus package announced by then interim PM Mahathir Mohamad on Feb 27. (CNA)

And then on Apr 6, 2021, he further announced an additional stimulus package worth RM10 billion to help struggling SMEs affected by the outbreak.

In another address on 5 June 2020, to help tackle rising unemployment, Muhyiddin announced that the government will allocate RM9 billion on various initiatives expected to benefit 3 million workers and the wage subsidy programme - which was introduced in earlier economic packages had saved more than 2.2 million jobs - will be extended for another three months.

He also announced that the government introduced an employment incentive programme worth RM1.5 billion to encourage employers to give jobs to unemployed individuals and youths.

To boost investors' confidence and ensure that the country continues to be a major investment destination, Muhyyidin said the government will establish the national Penjana fund worth RM1.2 billion, of which RM600 million is injected by the government while the other RM600 million will come from domestic or international investors.

Additionally, to boost digitisation, he added that the government will allocate RM100 milion to establish a national technology and innovation sandbox which will be led by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

In responding to the allegations that he benefitted from the above various stimulus packages, Muhyiddin said Bank Negara Malaysia would have received a notification about the movement of a large sum of money into his account and an investigation started over a year ago if he has benefitted from the above as alleged by politicians in the government.

Najib also said the same thing on the 1MDB case.

Bank Negara would have received a notification about the movement of the RM2.6 billion into his bank accounts.

And in this case, Bank Negara kept quiet and cited banking secrecy and confidentiality to justify their continued silence whether they knew and approved of the monies that went into Najib’s personal bank accounts.

At the end of the day, more than 9 judges from the High Court to the Federal Courts found Najib guilty.

His Finance Minister then, Zafrul justified that the use of RM5 billion from KWAN, a fund set up under the National Trust Fund Act 1988, and coming from the consolidated funds and Petroliam Nasional Bhd is above board as KWAN is regulated by five members of the board of trustees that includes government and private/professional representatives and audited annually by the National Audit Department who make all policy decisions before submitting them to the government.

Therefore, Zafrul said the check and balance element remains secure despite specific and limited amendments to the use of KWAN.

KWAP, who lends SRC a sum of RM4 billion also has a board comprising of government and private / professional representatives and audited annually.

The loan from KWAP was quietly repaid by the government who are still reeling and trying to recover the assets or non- existent assets which SRC claimed they invested in.

Yes, as Muhyyidin himself said, the above sums are no small things and it is a big deal.

He said he is not misusing the people’s money entrusted to the government to be used for the purpose of helping the people during difficult times.

Najib also said the same i.e he did not embezzled any funds that belong to the people. The monies that went into his personal account were a donation from a foreign nation. And in fact he returned a portion of the monies to the donor.

In Apr 2021, he proudly announced that even though he is not good at calculation, the total stimulus packages which his government allocated to the people of Malaysia was more than RM600 billion.

Then in Dec 2022, when defending the allegation that he could probably have misused the funds of RM600 billion proudly announced by him in April 2021 to have been allocated by the government for the benefits of all Malaysians, he said his administration had only spent RM83 billion in fiscal injections.

Maybe Anwar should make available the details and names of the recipients for the various packages announced by Muhyyidin for the people of Malaysia to judge and decide whether there was any malfeasance in the disbursement of the RM83 billion in fiscal injections.

1.       Wage subsidies worth RM20.92 billion,

2.       Bantuan Prihatin National of RM18.2 billion,

3.       Geran Khas Prihatin of RM4.21 billion,

4.       Geran Khas Prihatin Permai of RM842 million,

5.       Bumiputera Easy Financing Scheme of RM500 million,

6.       Employment incentive programme to encourage employers to give jobs to unemployed individuals and youths of RM1.5 billion,

7.       Additional stimulus package to help struggling SMEs affected by the outbreak of RM10 billion,

8.       The national Penjana fund worth RM1.2 billion, where the government will inject RM600 million and the other RM600 million will come from domestic or international investors, and

9.       RM100 million to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation to establish a national technology and innovation sandbox.

As Muhyiddin said, the Unit for the Implementation and Coordination of National Agencies on the Economic Stimulus Package (Laksana) would have every detail of the expenditure for all eight of the Economic Stimulus Packages which were implemented when he was prime minister.

Maybe Anwar should get Laksana to disclose and make public every detail of the expenditure for all eight of the Economic Stimulus Packages.

The rakyat has the right know as tax payers’ monies are involved.

The rakyat was led to believe that the total stimulus packages was more than RM600 billion and many sections of the rakyat has been wondering for the last 2 years where these funds flowed to as many did not receive any aid at all from the government and are left to fend for themselves.

And now the rakyat has been told that the total amount was only RM83 billion and not more than RM500 billion.

Lies and more lies.

The rakyat for sure hate liars when all they did was keep it real with the government.

When a public figure is caught lying, more often than, he have been lying frequently and not likely to stop with this habitual lies. 


The hits will keep on coming on Muhyiddin. 

And, Tengku Zafrul cannot perpetually take refuge behind Agong or Sultan Selangor, the rumour mongers claim.


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