Darell
KOTA KINABALU: Warisan has cautioned Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Muafakat Nasional (MN) over their inter-bickering and excessive usage of racial and religion sentiments as political themes that could potentially destroy the country.
Its deputy president, Darell Leiking said the bickering between Umno, Bersatu and PAS may very well be the reason why top global investors and multi-national corporations (MNCs) are reluctant to come to the country resulting in Malaysia being left far behind by Indonesia and the Philippines in terms of foreign direct investments (FDIs).
“No right-minded foreign investor will want to spend billions of ringgit in a country where a non-democratically mandated ruling coalition continue to fight among themselves even after taking over a legitimate Government that was overthrown by several selfish individuals.
“And the reluctance by this same ruling coalition to allow the Parliament to re-convene will only serve to reinforce the foreign investors’ perception that the country is now ruled by a junta.
“So it is no surprise that Indonesia and the Philippines are now the new preferred investment destinations by MNCs – Umno, Bersatu and PAS cannot provide the stability and clarity in terms of policies that these investors want in the first place,” he asserted in a statement on Friday.
Darell, who is the former minister of international trade and industry also said the excessive usage of race and religion as political themes by PN is not helping in rejuvenating the country’s economy.
“This is not the right time to talk about race and religion – we need to save and rejuvenate our economy because hundred thousands of ordinary Malaysians irrespective of whether he/she is a Malay, Chinese, Indian, Dayak, KadazanDusun or Bajau have already utilized their EPF as their last lifeline to survive.
But PN seems to have a misplaced priority when the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) now want to table the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 (Act 355) and Control and Restriction on the Propagation of Non-Muslim Bill.
“And while the World is moving coherently to end racism especially through sports and education with thousands of MNCs such as Apple, Google and Starbucks practicing a non-discriminative policy in their establishment, racial division in Malaysia is becoming wider and foreign investors will always want to avoid countries where racial tensions and clashes will disrupt their business activities.
“Many of those who spend time talking about race and religion can afford to do so because they are financially well off but thousands of Malaysians who were pushed to the brink of poverty line can’t – they desperately need better jobs and business opportunities to make up all the losses when their savings they were utilized last year,” he said.
He also believed that it will be very hard for PN to convince foreign investors and MNCs to come to the country no thanks to the many blunders and delays that the coalition committed since taking over the Government.
“First impression last and due to the continuous blunders and delays that PN made even after a year in power, it failed miserably in convincing the foreign investors and MNCs either to come or stay in the country.
“There were so many investments approved covering the whole of Malaysia in 2018 and 2019 and notably for Sabah, a High Tech Solar Panel manufacturer from China as well as an Australian Food Tech Investment amongst others that needs urgent action on the part of the Government to expedite local authority approvals.
“PN must provide satisfactory service to the foreign investors by expediting all their application because these investors are actually providing jobs and employments to Malaysians.
“Even Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yasin’s trip to UAE was overshadowed by the United Arab Emirates decision to invest US$10 billion in the Indonesian Investment Agency, a sovereign wealth agency and this tells us (1) how slow PN is to act when it comes to post pandemic economy and (2) the amount of trust the Arabs have towards Indonesian leaders.
“If INA can manage the US$10 billion responsibly with no issue and to the satisfaction of the United Arab Emirates, then obviously more investments worth billions of dollars will come from UAE into Indonesia and knowing that UAE is making money in that country, other Arab countries will follow suit.
“And while Indonesians are happily making money from the incoming FDIs, Malaysians will continue to be divided because of the race and religion cards played by PN and its political partners,” he concluded.
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