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Urge the Prime Minister Dato' Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad to be more cautious in introducing such drastic measures and to abolish them as soon as possible | |||||||
| Yesterday, Bank Negara announced some measures to control speculation on the ringgit. These include fixed exchange rate, export and import of the ringgit by travellers, restrictions on external account transactions by non-residents and tightening of rules on overseas investments by Malaysians. The Prime Minister believes that these measures are necessary to revitalize the economy. A few days ago, he said that there would be drastic measures. Then, the Bank Negara Governor and Deputy Governor resigned. The ringgit control measures are unprecedented. Even after the May 13, 1969 incident, the Government did not resort to these. Why does Dr Mahathir want these controls? We hope that he can be more open. Let the people know the truth. We understand that after 14 months of economic crisis, the flight of capital continues, the share market continues to be hit and the investors lose confidence. We have reminded the government that although speculators have played a big part in the present crisis, internal factors such as economic fundamentals, | wastage and bureaucracy are very important. If we were to have a huge external reserves such as U.S.$200 billion instead of RM20 billion, these speculators would have thought twice before touching the ringgit. We have to point out that the crisis is not only due to currency speculation but also the loss of confidence. Why are investors having no confidence in the Malaysian economy? The National Economic Recovery Plan has put forward certain measures to consolidate the fundamentals. The Government should concentrate on successful implementation of these measures. We feel that Dr Mahathir should be more careful in introducing currency controls which may drive away investors. There should be stringent monitoring of these measures. We do not know what their effects are. The aim should be to do away with them as soon as possible. We are on the look out for the adverse effects of the controls. We can see that other countries such as India and some Latin American countries have similar measures. Do they bring desirable results? Dr. Tan is the MP for Kepong |  Dr. Tan Seng Giaw | |||||
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