Malaysian opposition defends proposed budget

Malaysian opposition defends proposed budget PETALING JAYA: Malaysia's opposition on Friday defended its proposed budget, saying that the ruling party UMNO was resorting to scare tactics to win back votes. This was in response to remarks made by Prime Minister Najib Razak on Thursday. Mr Najib had said the opposition was unable to rule the country and warned Malaysians not to experiment by voting in the opposition and gamble away their future. Deputy president of Keadilan, or PKR, Azmin Ali accused the prime minister of spreading lies and trying to scare voters away from the opposition. He said this at a news conference at the party's headquarters on Friday. "He is lying about the figures, about the economic programmes we offer under the buku jingga, our budget," he said. Mr Azmin denied that the prime minister's charge that the opposition's proposed budget will bankrupt the country in no time. The opposition in their alternative budget proposed scrapping toll charges, lowering petrol prices and writing off student loans. Mr Azmin also insisted that Keadilan leader Anwar Ibrahim was capable of running the country and its economy, citing Anwar's track record in running the economy when he was the country's finance minister in the 90s. The country's annual growth hovered between 9 per cent and 10 per cent when Anwar was finance minister. Malaysia's gross domestic product hardly breaches 5 per cent now, while its national debt level has soared over five times. Kalasahan Abdul Halim, deputy women chief of UMNO's Semporna Division, also announced at the new conference that she had joined the opposition, citing loss of confidence with the ruling party UMNO. "I don't like UMNO because of all the scandals, it's shameful for women," she said. UMNO delegates, who are in the midst of their annual congress, have brushed off attacks from the opposition. The opposition had promised more defections, especially from the eastern state of Sabah in the coming weeks. - CNA/jc