YOURSAY | ‘The former finance minister seems to be unaware of how markets work.’

Najib: Harapan's opposition-style debt talk caused markets to sink

Anonymous_1423827415: This downside risk that former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak refers to, with the stock markets sinking slightly, is just temporary.

The long-term prospects are bright because investors like transparency and commitment to bring positive changes to our administration. Wastage won’t be tolerated anymore. The bright days will come sooner than expected.

Najib, we cannot deny what you have done for the country, that is true, but we will not forgive you for what you have done to it.

Dudeno: The Pakatan Harapan government has been in charge for a little over two weeks. The finance portfolio has been held for a grand total of four days.

Any economic faults are yours, Najib. If the real debt figures are being exposed only now, it is because you hid them from the public. Now that the truth is out, there will be obviously a negative reaction from the market.

Had we allowed you to continue, not only will we have a market crash, there will be no market left.

Please remember that this situation is 95 percent your doing, and the people want you to face justice, while we fix your mess and recover whatever funds you may have allegedly misappropriated.

Malaysian-United: To put it politely, please stop talking, Najib.

The markets are not stupid. Investors want nothing less than good governance and transparency in the markets they invest in. No one wants to invest in an opaque bubble economy.

The Umno-BN government has, in fact, misled investors in the past of the true state of the economy and you can't blame them if they get a little jittery when the true picture was revealed.

So the blame should actually go to you, Najib, for being dishonest by announcing inaccurate economic and financial data.

Investors welcome a government that is forthcoming in revealing its true financial health and the state of the country's economy.

That, coupled with a strong and resolute new government with a commitment to spur economic activity in the country, you can expect the markets to rebound strongly much sooner than later.

That is for certain. After all, when you have hit rock bottom - thanks to Najib and Umno-BN - the only way for Malaysia to go is up.

Anonymous_66833976: Why does Najib only mention Indonesia? Could it have anything to do with the fact that the Nikkei is -1.18 percent, Hang Seng is -1.82 percent, Shanghai is -1.41 percent and Singapore is -1.32 percent?

Asian markets fell mainly due to uncertainty regarding the US-China trade wars.

Podah: Indeed, either the former prime minister is being dense or disingenuous. Perhaps a little of both.

Does he really think the markets fell just because of PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s announcement of the debt to GDP ratio exceeding the permitted limit?

Did he hear about the global stocks selloff? The one attributed to US president Donald Trump expressing his unhappiness over the state of US-China trade talks?

Shameless. It appears his coterie of yea-sayers are still in contact with him, trying to forge a path for him to make a comeback by being opportunistic.

They were wrong once. They are wrong again now.

Quigonbond: I guess it’s fine if our ex-prime minister still lives in his bubble of righteousness, it’ll just make him fall harder later.

It is as if he believes that lying about our financial health to prop up our market is far more important than full disclosure.

Foreign investors are not quitting the market here only, but in other emerging markets as well, in anticipation of rate hikes in the US. These are hot money, and fair-weather friends, if you can even call them that.

Malaysians wholeheartedly welcome all the revelations. It shows a transparent government who dares to experiment with trusting its citizens to be mature enough in their reaction.

The share market hasn’t exactly tanked, due to no small role played by local investors who are positive about our future.

Besides, Mahathir, Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Daim Zainuddin and Lim Guan Eng are not spring chicken when it comes to rescuing economies. They are speaking and doing things responsibly, so I wouldn’t worry at all.

Coffee Break: Funny, Najib claimed to be not aware of what's in his house, in his safe - except the chocolates - and obviously not aware world stock markets dipped in tandem, not just ours. Obviously, he is grasping at straws to redeem himself.

We the rakyat, the boss, want the truth and nothing but the truth. And together with our appointed ‘servants’, we will save our country.

Smart Traveller: The KLCI index losses is a natural market reaction to the size of debts we incurred. Besides, there is a worldwide stock downtrend.

We could just as easily say that the downtrend is caused by the counting of your hidden loot, the police and MACC going after the old cronies, and Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng giving your cheerleader Arul Kanda Kandasamy a dressing down.

Veritas Milosevic: The reaction to Najib is amazing. People need him as the bogeyman, the one to hate, the one to serve as the departure point to say how much Malaysia has changed.

The more the old regime is trashed, the more we can pretend the rakyat is heroic and the new government is doing amazing things.

Yes, some kudos to the rakyat and some, perhaps a lot of trashing of Najib is definitely in order.

But what we need to do, especially since we claim that this is the new Malaysia, is to always separate the idea from the man saying it.

If you want to claim you are guided by rationality, it is imperative that you separate the idea being put forward from the person and judge the utterance on its own merit.

And just because you happen to like someone now, it does not mean you have to accept his or her statement as true. Freedom, democracy, the ‘New Malaysia’ are all buzzwords unless you also show a new mindset and shed the feudal mind.

Rationality is needed presently, which requires the ability to weigh ideas carefully. It is easier to deal with complexity by blindly accepting or rejecting positions taken on the basis of who is the flavour of the month.

Malaysians need to ask where Najib has a point, where he is self-serving, and where is plainly making falsehoods. It is not easy to do, but that is what a democratic future requires.

If you do not cultivate that, you can be sure we will be back in the same mess shortly. The new leaders are on trial now, but so are the rakyat.

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