Thursday, February 10, 2011

Mahfuz on why people think govt has no money to evacuate Malaysians

Harakahdaily

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7: When the government was blamed for not having enough financial resources to evacuate thousands of Malaysian students from troubled Egypt, the prime minister has only himself to blame, said PAS vice president Mahfuz Omar (pic).

“We welcome the government’s guarantee, but the Prime Minister cannot regard as slander the people’s accusation that the government had no money to bear the cost to bring back the students.

"I understand that they obtained information from Wisma Putra and the embassy themselves that the cost from Jeddah to Malaysia must be borne by the students to the extent that some have bought their own tickets,” said Mahfuz.

During a visit to Kampung Baru over the weekend, Najib lashed out at several quarters who alleged that the government had no money for the evacuation exercise, and gave his guarantee to parents of the stranded students that it would bear all costs to bring them home.

He also warned PAS and PKR, which have criticised the delayed start of the evacuation dubbed "Operation Pyramid", not to politicise the issue.

Mahfuz said the government should not have announced that it would seek help from the private sector such as Tabung Haji, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and AirAsia to absorb the costs.

Such statements, said Mahfuz, would give the impression that the government is not ready to bear the cost of the operation.

“We agree that private sector has social obligations, but it is not right for the government to wait and see how much the private sector is willing to sponsor. It should first be prepared to bear the cost and only then discuss how to fund it,” said Mahfuz.

Mahfuz remarked that Najib had perhaps been "embarrassed" by the sponsorship from Saudi Arabia’s Prince Turki Abdullah Al-Saud, who contributed two Boeing 747 flights from Jeddah to Kuala Lumpur.

http://en.harakahdaily.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2227:mahfuz-on-why-people-think-govt-has-no-money-to-evacuate-malaysians&catid=34:primary&Itemid=56

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