Nazri: Daim longs for days of ‘dictatorship under Mahathir’

Nazri Aziz dismisses Daim Zainuddin’s call for new key economic team to strengthen economy, saying country faced economic downturn even when the latter was finance minister.

(FMT) – Tourism and Culture Minister Mohamed Nazri Aziz today mocked former finance minister Daim Zainuddin’s recent comments, saying the latter was nostalgic for the days under the “dictatorship of Mahathir”.

Nazri was referring to an opinion piece by Daim, which was published in The Edge earlier this month.

Among other things, Daim had said the government needed to address the chronic trust deficit and to get rid of the feudalism mindset, especially among those who were the trustees of the nation. He suggested that a new economic team be assembled and empowered to fix the economy.

Calling for reforms, including amendments to laws to ensure the independence of the judiciary and security institutions, Daim had urged the government to have tolerance for dissent and differences in opinion and ideologies.

“Maybe Daim is a bit nostalgic about his time when he was the finance minister under the dictatorship of Mahathir. It is a bit nostalgic for him.

“We (under Prime Minister Najib Razak) are very open as you can see. We can raise any issue. There is openness, which I think there was none (under Mahathir). Those days people were afraid to speak up,” the Umno supreme council member said.

“Mahathir was a dictator and was like (Zimbabwe president) Robert Mugabe,” he added.

Nazri also rebuffed Daim’s suggestion that a new key economic team was needed to strengthen the economy, saying the country had faced an economic downturn during Daim’s tenure as finance minister.

“It is not necessary. There was an economic downturn under his watch and there wasn’t a committee set up. We just resolved it on our own.

“I mean there is no need for a new committee to be set up. It is the responsibility of the government to look into it,” Nazri said, adding that other countries, too, were facing a similar problem.

“It is worldwide phenomena. Everybody is facing the same economic issues. Please allow the government to resolve this issue.”

He also said Daim was more than welcome to help if he so desired.

“Yes, he can help if he wants to in whatever way. But to me it is the responsibility of the government.”