Malaysia’s communications minister Salleh Said Keruak wrote on his blog that the government will meet with representatives of Facebook, Google and Twitter to enlist their help in combating “the increasing tide of false information and rumours”.
Advertisement
However, Najib noted that Malaysia’s economy is linked to the global market which is affecting the country’s currency.
Separately, Malaysian central bank Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz said foreign exchange reserves had fallen but it was not a cause for worry. “Therefore, the government of Malaysia will not move to a pegged exchange rate regime nor will it impose capital controls”.
The IMF, which called Malaysia’s response “a step back” at the time, later acknowledged it was a “stability anchor”.
The ringgit opened at 4.0980 this morning, maintaining its ranking as Asia’s worst performer this year with losses exceeding 17 percent against the U.S. dollar.
“I really hope the younger generation do not engage in the spreading of such news that seem to propogate that Malaysia is being derailed economically and politically, and on the path to becoming a rogue nation and a failed state”, said Najib.
“We’ve seen it decrease before and there’s no issue to be concerned because that’s what the reserves are there for, to represent a buffer to adjust during such periods”, she told reporters.
While much of the decline is due to monetary policy changes in the US and China as well as crashing commodity prices, banking executives and even Najib has cited politics as a contributing factor.
A Wall Street Journal report had claimed that the RM2.6 billion was from the debt-ridden state investment arm, only for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to rule that the money was from personal donations, and not 1MDB.
This is while a number of UMNO members, including former long-term Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and deposed Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, have harshly censured Najib’s government for failing to offer convincing details about the more than 670 million dollars discovered in prime minister’s bank accounts.
Advertisement
“The importance of national security not only remains today but has increased”, said Najib at the launch of a coffee table book titled “Mission Accomplished: The Military Journey of Gen Tan Sri Dr Mohamed Hashim Mohd Ali (Rtd) From Soldier to Leader” at the Perdana Putra Building yesterday, according to a report by The Star Online. The economy expanded the least in almost two years last quarter.
