KUALA LUMPUR: Former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today defended his reasoning for removing the fuel subsidy and floating the fuel price in November 2014..
In his post in his Facebook page, Najib said removing the old fuel subsidy and floating the fuel price was to help the rakyat, especially the poor.
“My stand on the previous fuel subsidy is that it was unfair for the rakyat, specifically the poor people. It was the rich who were getting the benefit more than the poor.”
He said the benefits enjoyed by a rich person driving an expensive car in the city were far greater than farmers riding their motorcycles or a person using the LRT to work. Therefore, it was an unfair system and he removed it to help the poor.
“That was my stand on this issue. It was so unfair. The rich should not be the 80% enjoying the benefit of the fuel subsidy.
“By removing the fuel subsidy, we can increase the salary of government workers and directly help the poor through BR1M, which under my leadership has seen an increase in the amount since I introduced it,” he said.
He said the removal of the subsidy had proven to be fair in ensuring the poor gets to enjoy the country’s wealth.
“Even at RM2.20 per litre at the time, it was the 15th cheapest oil price in the world on par with the selling price in Saudi Arabia at the time,” he said.
He was confident that Malaysians were intelligent enough to understand his stand on the issue and it was the right thing to do.
However, he said, people had the right to demand a lower oil price because that was promised by the current government.