PUTRAJAYA: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak shot down claims that Malaysia is a failed state and said instead the nation had recorded numerous success stories until today.
The prime minister added these successes were possible due to the strong support from the public service sector towards the government.
“Last year, we have registered 5.9 per cent in gross domestic product, which is among the highest in the world,” he said.
At the same time, international rating bodies including Moody’s, Standard & Poor, Fitch Ratings had maintained Malaysia’s credit rating at stable with an A score in 2017.
Najib also said based on the Global Competitive Index 2017-2018, it ranked Malaysia at 23rd position out of 137 other countries in terms of competitiveness.
“Malaysia’s public service sector has also received international recognition including the Global Blue Ocean Shift Awards for its National Blue Ocean Strategy during the Global Entrepreneurship Award (GEC) event held in Kuala Lumpur last year in December.
Najib also said Arab Saudi’s Aramco had also injected US$7 or nearly RM30 billion few days ago worth, which would stimulate the country’s economy.
“Based on all of these, I want to ask, how can anyone say we are a failed state?
“To my knowledge, failure is something like the inability to build a tunnel, ... when floods hit (Penang) they asked for help of which the civil servants came to their rescue. If that is not a failure, what else is there to say?
“How about the water issue in Selangor? They had governed the state for 10 years, but the state still faced treated water issues. That is what I call a failure and to certain extent some said: ‘Leaders got votes, the people got pails’,” he said.
Najib said this in his keynote address at the 16th Civil Service Premier Gathering (MAPPA), here, yesterday.
The prime minister also fired another salvo at the opposition, saying a main leader in the northern state had displayed an uncalled behaviour by singing and dancing to an anti-GST before children to instill hatred towards the federal government.
“Let the said leader be with his attitude, but we as a government will continue to empower and strengthen the country’s education institution as well as the educators”, said Najib. Additional reporting by Mohd Husni Mohd Noor, Irwan Sharizan Ismail, Zanariah Abd Mutalib, and Suhaila Shahrul Annuar.