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Comment on PM's National Day Address, 1998. Call on the Government to lead by example, realizing the theme of 'Our Nation, Our Responsibility'. One aim should be to increase our external reserves so that, in future, they may reach U.S.$200 billion. | |||||||
| The Prime Minister's message for the National Day is that Malaysians must face the reality that they have to be responsible in defending and managing their own country. "We must strive on our own to revive our nation's economy and defend our sovereignty and independence," he added. All Malaysians should strive to be on our own, absorbing the new such as the information technology and retaining the old values that are proven. Obviously, we still need foreign capital such as long-term foreign direct investment. It is true that foreign speculators have done much damage to the Ringgit and the market. If our own weaknesses such as bureaucracy, corruption and wastage are dealt with early, the damage might not have been so big. If we were to have foreign reserves of say U.S.$100 billion instead of RM20 billion, the outcome would have been very different. Dr Mahathir | |
has admitted that the country's growth is a contraction of 1% or more compared with an 8% growth for over 10 consecutive years. More people suffer. We would like all Malaysians to unite and get over the crisis. At the same time, we believe that the Government would have to do something more. It must lead by examples. Let us continue to identify all the shortcomings and try our best to tackle them head on. One of the shortcomings is the relatively small foreign reserve. We should not compare our position with those countries having even lower reserves than ours. On the other hand, we should look at Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. They have big reserves; they fend off the currency marauders. As we have maintained for some time, the Malaysian reserves should be increased. Let us see the trend, first U.S.$50 billion, then U.S.$100 billion and beyond.
Dr Tan Seng Giaw | |||||
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