'Tony Pua needs to see himself in the mirror first' says Dr Akmal
NOR AZURA MD AMIN , WAN MOHD NOOR HAFIZ WAN MANSOR , NAZRIN ZULKAFLI , NURFARDLINA IZZATI MOKTAR
SHAH ALAM - Former DAP publicity secretary Tony Pua has angered Umno leaders when he called Barisan Nasional (BN), which is now with Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the Unity Government as 'corrupt coalition'.
Umno Youth chief Dr Muhammad Akmal Salleh demanded DAP to take strict action against the former Damansara MP and even labelled Tony's words as rude.
"Don't let the rude act of an individual like Tony Pua damage the harmony and understanding that is being formed.
"Tony Pua should learn that Umno's presence in the Unity Government is an important asset to ensure that the fate and nightmare of the Malays during the 22 months of PH government does not repeat itself. Umno Youth demands DAP to take strict action against Tony Pua," he said in a statement Friday night.
While speaking at a DAP Fundraising Dinner at the Petaling Jaya City Hall compound on Friday, Tony Pua had asked PH to form its own government among the coalition components without involving Umno and BN if it won in the upcoming 16th General Election (GE16).
"PH chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who was appointed as Prime Minister, has to prove to the multiracial people in this country that the PH administration is much better and not as corrupt as BN.
"Keep it in mind that the current Unity Government can easily break at any time. So it is important for the Prime Minister and the entire government to continue serving the people.
"The popular Prime Minister is not for Petaling Jaya only but also for Terengganu, Kelantan, Pahang, Kedah, Sabah and Johor," he said, who called Bersatu, another Malay nationalist party, a corrupt coalition.
While demanding that Tony Pau should look himself in the mirror first before throwing accusations at Umno, Dr Akmal claimed that the country went through dark times when Pakatan Harapan (PH) governed the country for 22 months after the 14th General Election (GE14) in 2018.
He said at that time, Tony was appointed as an advisor to Lim Guan Eng who was the finance minister.
"He (Tony Pua) who works in the Finance Ministry failed to drive economic development and caused the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to fall and the national debt to spike.
"This does not include the weakened value of the ringgit due to his actions and recklessness which gave a negative image of the country," he said.
Dr Akmal added Tony who alleged BN was corrupt, needed to look at how BN had actually driven the country with sustainable economic growth in addition to the World Bank and the World Economic Forum (WEF) mentioning Malaysia as the 23rd most competitive country in the world.
He said this includes BN's success in increasing GDP to a value of RM1.4 trillion as well as efforts to strengthen assets belonging to government-linked companies (GLCs).
"Furthermore, investment companies had invested hundreds of billions and gave high returns to the people, and the government such as Khazanal Nasional experienced an increase from RM32 billion to RM116 billion while Petronas' cash reserves increased from RM30 billion to RM174 billion," he explained.
Therefore, he said the party condemned Tony Pua's rude behavior of calling BN a corrupt coalition and causing the grassroots of Umno to be disappointed.
Dr Akmal at the 2023 Umno General Assembly on June 8 had urged DAP to apologise for all the accusations they had thrown to Umno so far.
However, Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had dismissed the need for DAP to apologise as the matter does not need to be raised again because they had reached a mutual agreement during the negotiation to form the Unity Government.
