Muhyiddin says PERC report is nonsense

By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani - The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 11 — Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (picture) has described a regional political risk consultancy report which said Malaysia was veering towards instability as “nonsensical”.

Muhyiddin said that the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) must be “talking through their nose”.

“I don’t think we need to react to all these nonsensical reports coming from those who know nothing about the country.

“Maybe those guys are sitting at a table somewhere in a remote corner of Hong Kong.

“They have to come here and we will be happy to bring them down here and see what is stability, what is security, what is war, what is trouble,” he told reporters today after a function at the Felda headquarters here.

PERC reported that the impression that Malaysia has given since New Year’s Day was that the situation in the country is becoming increasingly unstable.

In a blistering report on Malaysia released at the end of January, PERC also asserted that a group of elite minorities were dominating the national agenda to the extent that it was hurting Malaysia’s attractiveness to investors.

The consultancy, which also publishes reports on the risk ratings of other Asian countries, said it is “probable” that no other Asian country is suffering from as much bad press as Malaysia.

Among the developments that caught its attention were the theft of military jet engines, detention of terror suspects from a number of African and Middle East countries following warnings that Islamic militants were planning attacks on foreigners at resorts in Sabah, renewed ethnic and religious “violence” that included arson at some churches and desecration of mosques, and controversy over the integrity of key institutions like the judicial system in the sodomy trial of opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

The report noted that the government is blaming the international media for exaggerated reporting and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had argued that the focus should not be on the fringe groups that are causing problems but on the majority of Malaysians who are coming together to condemn the recent acts of violence following the ‘Allah’ controversy.

But PERC maintained that the root of the problem was a vocal minority that is dominating the national agenda.

Muhyiddin claimed that the report appeared to be part of a hidden agenda to destabilise the country.

“All these reports have obvious ulterior motives with intention of not helping. We are not asking them to help us anyway. We are helping ourselves and we don’t need their comments because I think a lot of other people know and evaluate ourselves very objectively. We are not basing it on emotions but facts and reality. The fact is that Malaysians are happy and are not facing any major disaster and there is no racial trouble in the country or war among us. So what are they talking about?

“I think they must be talking through their nose,” he said.