Report to stay ‘secret’ for now
Published on: Sunday, March 31, 2019
By: Bernama
LANGKAWI: The government cannot make the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP)’s report public as some matters are still at the consultation stage, said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
He said although he was aware that the government would be accused of not being transparent because of this, such stand was necessary as more time was needed before any decision could be made.
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“I don’t know what it is that we can’t tell, as we have revealed almost everything, but there are some matters under consultations and we cannot reveal what we are negotiating until a decision has been reached,” he told a press conference.
Dr Mahathir was asked to comment on calls by various parties for the government to make the report public as it is now placed under the Official Secrets Act 1972.
Dr Mahathir also said that he was aware that some Malaysians were not bothered by the damage done by former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak when the latter was in charge of the country.
He stressed that the damage done by the former Umno president was difficult for the current government to fix.
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“He owed so much money, money went missing and so much more, and also undertook contracts that causes huge losses to Malaysia. But (when) we want to end these contracts we are forced to pay compensation to the contractors, this causes costs to rise and harms the nation’s finances,” he said.
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Thus, he said, the current government could not afford to give cash handouts to the people like what Najib did.
“This is because he used stolen money. We are not kleptocrats, we are not thieves, we are not stealing money. We try to earn money as much as possible, but of course we have to reduce gradually the free gifts given by Najib,” he added.
The CEP was formed after Pakatan Harapan took over the country’s administration in May last year.
It was headed by former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin and comprised industry icons including former Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz, former Petronas president and chief executive Tan Sri Hassan Merican, billionaire Robert Kuok,and prominent economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram.
The council was set up by Dr Mahathir to advise him on socio-economic and financial matters.
The council met with over 350 people from more than 200 organisations and ended on August 19 last year.
Daim and Jomo Kwame have gone on record supporting the call to make the CEP report public but pointed out that it was the prerogative of the prime minister.
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