PM: Malaysian debt at alarming level

(NST) – Malaysia’s debt has reached an alarming one trillion ringgit, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.

He said important measures must be taken for the nation to quickly recover from the situation.

He pointed out that the country only used to have debts of around RM300 billion when he was the prime minister previously.

“But now, our debts have reached more than one trillion and we need to solve this,” he said at the monthly assembly with the civil servants under the Prime Minister’s Department.

Dr Mahathir said many changes needed to be made but he was confident that it could be done with the help of civil servants.

“We are confident that we can overcome the challenged but we need civil servants who are efficient and trustworthy to achieve this changes.

“As administrators, one must put the rule of law above all else and those tasked to carry out their duties must help to clean things up so that Malaysia can be on the road of recovery. All of us must work together to achieve this,” he said.

He said possible changes were being thoroughly studied but it was too soon to disclose what they were.

Dr Mahathir said he wanted undivided support of the civil servants to get Malaysia back on the right track of economic recovery.

“It won’t take too long for the country to recover and be respected once again, if all of us work together,” he said.