In a Facebook post, Najib, who was the former finance minister, used a bar chart to “paint” a comparison between the allocations for the education sector by the Barisan Nasional and PH.

“There were some who told me to “draw” after writing too much about government scholarship cuts and allocations for Universiti Malaya (UM) and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in Budget 2019 compared to Budget 2018.

“Okay, I’ll draw,” Najib said in a Facebook post tonight, which included a bar chart that showed the difference in allocations in six areas related to scholarships and university budgets.

The bar chart showed a 33% cut in allocations for the Public Service Department (JPA) scholarships from RM1.5 billion under Budget 2018 to RM1 billion in Budget 2019.

Allocations for Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) scholarships were slashed by 20% from RM2.5 billion to RM2 billion.

Allocations for scholarships under the education and health ministries were also cut by 26% and 3% respectively this year.

The budget for UM has been reduced by 9% from RM445 million in Budget 2018 to RM405 million in Budget 2019.

USM’s allocation saw a 5% drop from RM525 million to RM501 million.

Najib said if budget cuts of these proportions were carried out while he was still the prime minister, PH would have accused him of not taking care of the future of the young people.

This comes hours after Najib chided education minister Maszlee Malik for proposing to give free breakfasts to low-income students after a visit to a Japanese school, saying there was a similar plan in place since 1979.

He was referring to the Supplementary Food Programme, which provides meals to children in the bottom 40 (B40) group.

However, an aide to Maszlee said on Facebook that that programme mentioned by Najib only provided meals at recess while the new plan would provide breakfast for the students.