Most Malaysians want yacht sold to aid nation

Slowing exports and tepid inflation have raised expectations that policy makers will need to consider adding to May

PETALING JAYA: Most Malaysians polled want superyacht Equanimity, which is berthed in Port Klang, to be auctioned off in aid of Tabung Harapan.

In a simple poll by Star Online yesterday, as at 6.50pm, 67% of the 4,730 respondents voted for the billion-ringgit yacht to be auctioned off with proceeds channelled to the fund set up on May 30 to allow Malaysians to contribute to ease the burden of the government in tackling the RM1 trillion national debt.

The poll on “What should Ma­­laysia do with the superyacht Equani­mity” was posted on Face­book at 1pm.

Of the others, 14% voted for the yatch to be opened up for public viewing as “a floating 1MDB mu­­seum”, while 11% chose for the yacht to be rented out on Airbnb as party/event space.

The remaining 8% of respon­dents wanted the yacht used to ply the Straits of Malacca in style for a small fee.

Facebook user Chris Ng said Equanimity should be turned into a “Malaysian museum of kleptocracy and corruption”.

CJ Chang said the vessel “should go down in flames” – but not before charging the public a small fee for viewing it.

Christine Ling was more specific with the fee, saying RM10 each could be charged for the Tabung Harapan collection.

“It would be wise to just sell it off after that as we need to get back the money,” she wrote.

“Use it for tourism purposes and make money out of it,” wrote Sujen­dran Rajendhiran.

Lalli Seelan said “sell it and repay the debts. You keep it too long, you need to maintain it and that is money from the rakyat”.