By Syauqi Jamil
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia did not suffer with high national debt after taking a soft loan credit from Japan during in the 1980s and 1990s.
Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad implied that this is on contrary to the current financial situation faced today where the national debt had blew up to almost three times than it was then.
The Langkawi MP said that official figures from the annual financial reports showed that debt during his tenure as the fourth premier never exceeded RM300 billion, and were only 27% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“I was there for 22 years, so I know a little bit about the financial growth and debts.
“Our debt never reached RM42 billion at one time. We also never had a debt of RM1 trillion.
“We never heard of the term ‘trillion’ before… I don’t know if RM300 billion is larger than RM1 trillion,” he said today.
Speaking at the Dewan Rakyat during the Minister Question Time, Mahathir was responding to a supplementary question from Opposition Leader Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
The Bagan Datuk lawmaker was asking the possibility of Malaysia facing yet another financial crisis like the one in the 1990s should the government proceed to take the Yen credit loan from the Japanese government.
Earlier, Zahid in his question asked the relevancy of Malaysia’s interest to take up yet another loan from Japan who has a higher currency than the Ringgit, questioning if it will burden the national debt even more.
Mahathir in his initial response said that even if the Yen value is lower it does not necessarily mean that the Yen loan will be cheaper.
“We will loan the Yen in USD or RM whichever comes first. Yen will be converted to USD to pay off debts in USD or RM,” he said.
