KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 — Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong wants to know if Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan will haul up Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) for “economic sabotage” over its 2016 report on the country’s youth unemployment rate.

The Opposition lawmaker noted that the central bank in its report had highlighted a worrying rise in joblessness among young Malaysians which had surpassed 10 per cent in 2015, three times higher than the national rate of that year.

“Is ‘madman in authority’ Rahman going to call the Bank Negara Report an economic sabotage for calling out the government on its failure in its economic management in job creation and ensuring that we will not see a ‘lost generation’?” Liew asked in a statement today.

Abdul Rahman had previously proposed that provisions under the National Security Council (NSC) be applied against those who give a negative impression of the country’s economy.

In its report, BNM said the unemployment rate for youths was at 10.7 per cent in 2015 and warned that “the twin developments of persistent high youth unemployment and rising income inequality may constrain social mobility, and lead to increasing dissatisfaction among the populace”.

The central bank added that the situation had resulted in high-skilled talents to leave Malaysia for advanced economies and neighbouring countries in search of better jobs and pay and further warned that a whole “generation of economically disenfranchised youth could have negative and far-reaching ramifications on the economic and social landscape” if nothing was done.

Liew who described Abdul Rahman “most politicised” minister in charge of the Economic Performance Unit, urged the Umno lawmaker to engage in civil debates and not use NSC laws to silence “legitimate critics”.

He also said that he is prepared to engage in a debate on any platform on the state of the Malaysian economy.

“Hopefully he is brave enough to face legitimate critics like me, and not to hide behind the NSC law.

“The idea of wielding NSC laws on critics who have alternative views on the economy is a dangerous sign of an intolerant regime not prepared to engage in sound and informed debate,” the DAP man added.