Don’t lag in reopening borders, Muhyiddin urges govt

Muhyiddin Yassin today defended the proposal of his National Recovery Council (MPN) to reopen the country’s borders this month in order to restore the tourism, trade and economic sectors still struggling in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The former prime minister said this was an important step to restoring Malaysia’s economic standing to pre-pandemic levels, adding that it was also possible thanks to the success of the national vaccination programme.

“I see no reason to delay the decision to reopen our borders, given that other countries who lag behind ours in vaccinating their citizens have already done so,” he said in his debate on the royal address in the Dewan Rakyat today.

He also referred to data from research bodies such as the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research showing that the country’s economic recovery was gaining in strength.

He said Malaysia had succeeded in attracting over RM220 billion in approved investments last year for the manufacturing and services sector, whereas the index for the services sector, particularly for wholesale and retail sales, commercial bank loans and Islamic banking, were also in the positive range throughout 2021.

“Nevertheless, these numbers are lower than the figures before (the pandemic), showing that we need two or three years before the economy is fully restored,” he said.

He also took former prime minister Najib Razak to task for his claims that the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government during his administration had been wasteful in announcing RM600 million in assistance and economic stimulus packages.

“His accusation was very insensitive towards the people who, along with businesses, suffered many hardships throughout the pandemic,” the Pagoh MP said.

“Many people I met had thanked the PN government for the assistance they received, including cash aid of RM17 billion channelled to the people just last year.”

He said the economic packages announced during his time in government had contributed 3.7 to 4.0 percentage points to the GDP in 2020, adding that they were among the biggest contributors to economic recovery at that point.

“I am at a loss over the attitude of the Pekan MP,” he said. “When I as prime minister gave aid of hundreds of billions of ringgit to the people and to businesses during times of hardship, I was said to have been wasteful.

“But when he was prime minister, tens of billions of the people’s money was lost just like that, and it was not considered wasted.

“Perhaps because he made a profit, it was not a waste for him.”