As of June 2022, the remaining debt commitments of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) are as much as RM32.08 billion.
So, how long do you think our country is going to take to pay it all of?
In a video shared by the Ekomoni Rakyat Twitter page, Dr. Muhammed Abdul Khalid, who is part of the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) Board of Trustees and is the former Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister, estimated that the debt will be paid off only in 2037.
He shared, “People tend to not want to talk about 1MDB. Najib will come out from prison, if not pardoned, in 2034. 12 years, 2034. We will finish paying the 1MDB debts in 2037. We pay RM15 billion this year and next year we’re going to pay RM13 billion.”
That’s a total of RM28 billion for these 2 years aloneÂ
“To put things into perspective, how much this money is, the budget for Perak that was passed by the state assembly this year is RM1.1 billion. In other words, if that (1MDB) money was not stolen, we do not have to finance Perak for 28 years,”
“Kelantan’s budget is also at about RM900 million, so if you add Kelantan and Perak, you don’t have to finance them for 14 years. That’s how much money we have lost, that’s on 1MDB alone.”
Additionally, he touched on the dissolved government’s actions of allocating RM17.8 billion on the reconstruction of Lembaga Tabung Haji, after the Muslim pilgrimage fund faced years of alleged mismanagement from the previous administration.
“And you have to remember this, why social stability matters, why everybody has to benefit. Why social coalition matters. When you ‘bail out’ Tabung Haji, it’s not Muslim money. It’s the Chinese’s money who go and bailed out, it’s the Indians’ money who go and bailed out, it’s the Malay money that’s went and bailed out, because it’s Federal money, the public’s money,”
“We did not take from Zakat to ‘bail out’ Tabung Haji. So, social coalition, like Sultan said like Asam Laksa, is very important,” he added, while emphasising that we must avoid corruption by practicing high moral values.
Stay tuned for more updates.
Also read: UMNO Pekan Lists Najib as One of Its Candidates to Defend Parliamentary Seat in GE15
