People’s hope: Pakatan’s manifesto
| March 9, 2013
The manifesto will be financed from
money saved by curbing corruption, money saved by plugging wastage and
leakages, thrifty-spending and priority-spending.
COMMENT
The
Pakatan Rakyat People’s Manifesto (Manifesto Rakyat) launched on Feb 25 has
elicited the usual response from Barisan Nasional leaders such as “not
feasible”, “not workable”, “impossible to achieve”, “not realistic” and “will
bankrupt the nation”.
The statement of former prime
Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad that Pakatan’s People’s Manifesto will bankrupt
the nation was labelled as a “photocopied statement” by PAS vice-president and
Pokok Sena MP, Mahfuz Omar, who is of the view that BN leaders always sing the
same old tune about Pakatan’s budget or manifesto.
PAS Kuala Selangor MP, Dzulkefly
Ahmad, as a member of the manifesto committee, has thrown a challenge to BN to
send its representative to debate with Pakatan leaders over each and every
point in the manifesto which is divided into several key sections as outlined
below:
A. Points for the
people’s economy:
1. To introduce a holistic programme
to ensure that one million jobs will be made available in the agricultural,
construction and service sectors and to decrease the number of foreign workers
by one million in stages in the space of five years.
2. Implement a minimum wage of
RM1,100 per month in line with the principle that every worker should be paid
sufficiently as gainful employment to commensurate with the current cost of
living so that he will not be living below the poverty line.
3. Pakatan will set up a Royal
Commission of Inquiry to make improvements on the nation’s education system in
line with the plan to overhaul the nation’s education system.
To break up the monopoly in the
services sector by setting up an Anti-Monopoly Commission and to revamp
existing law in regard to competition in order to stop unfair trade practices.
4. To break up the monopoly in the
services sector by setting up an Anti-Monopoly Commission and to revamp
existing law in regard to competition in order to stop unfair trade practices.
5. Dissolve 1MDB in order for
Khazanah Nasional Bhd to remain as the sole body in charge of overseeing the
nation’s investments.
B. Points for the
people’s well-being:
1. Reduce price of petrol, diesel
and utilities. Abolish tolls and monopolies to create healthy competition.
2. Revamp the National Automotive
Policy to lessen the people’s burden by getting rid of the excise tax and to
ensure that the lowest car price will be RM25,000. Affordable and comfortable
housing will be built for all.
3. Abolishing PTPTN (student loans)
with the public university fees being borne by the government and a
cost-of-living allowance will be given to each and every student.
4. Pakatan will immediately put a
stop to the implementation of the AES (Automated Enforcement System) as it is a
crony-enrichment project.
5. Revamp the share structure in
Felda Global Ventures (FGV) with the aim of returning the operations and
landownership of Felda lands to the Felda settlers and Felda staff.
Points for the
people’s government:
1. Free the civil servants from
being in the grip of their political masters and provide them with a good
remuneration package in order to attract the best talent into the civil
service.
2. Implement Bersih’s eight demands,
automatic voter registration at age 21 and to clean up the electoral roll
within 100 days in power.
3. Free the national institutions
such as the Judiciary, Attorney-General’s Chambers, MACC (Malaysian
Anti-Corruption Commission) and the police force from being in the grip of
politicians.
4. Ensure that Parliament is the
voice of the people to check and balance the Executive powers. To set up
Parliamentary Select Committees for important sectors such as finance, national
security, education, defence and Petronas in order to increase the
effectiveness and efficiency in the implementation of programmes and projects.
5. Abolish laws that curb media
freedom.
6. Abolish the Universities and
University Colleges Act (UUCA) within 100 days in power.
7. Review and revamp or abolish all
laws that are against the principles and spirit of justice and people’s freedom
within the first year in power.
8. The Pakatan federal government
will enforce the Restoration of Democracy Act to empower the people. All the
ISA (Internal Security Act) detainees will be released and a public apology
will be tendered by the government.
A nation at the
crossroads
PKR strategy director, Rafizi Ramli,
mentioned that Pakatan will focus on efficiency-spending and all the programmes
in Pakatan’s manifesto will be financed from three sources, namely: money saved
by curbing corruption, money saved by plugging wastage and leakages,
thrifty-spending and priority-spending.
“If BN claims that Pakatan’s
manifesto is not workable, then it needs to furnish its [manifesto] in full. We
want to see how BN’s MRT [Mass Rail Transit] project can incur a cost of up to
RM80 billion when other countries can do it at a much lower cost. And also, for
the cost of building railway tracks. We want to see each and every detail so
that this can be presented to the people and debated in full,” said Rafizi.
He also said that all the programmes
in the People’s Manifesto will cost RM45.75 billion.
Financing the manifesto will come
from subsidies given to the IPPs (Independent Power Producers), re-negotiation
of monopolies and transferring expenses incurred by the Prime Minister’s
Department and less important sectors to the important sectors of the economy.
“Under BN’s tenure there is a lot of
wastage. The Prime Minister’s Department itself incurs expenditure amounting to
RM14 billion yearly and Pakatan can make use of this amount well for the
programmes listed in the People’s Manifesto,” said Rafizi.
Hu Pang Chaw, the chief of PAS
Supporters Wing (for non-Muslims in PAS), is optimistic that the People’s
Manifesto will be welcomed by all and sundry as good financial management and
curbing of corruption and cronyism will lead to a healthy economy for
everyone’s well-being.
According to him, Pakatan’s approach
is vastly different from Umno’s whose financial management only enable the rich
to get richer and the poor to get poorer thereby causing a massive wealth and
income gap between the rich and the poor.
“The situation will deteriorate if
BN continues to be the federal government,” said Hu.
Therefore we are a nation at the
crossroads. Will we vote wisely for the betterment of all? In the meantime,
where is BN’s manifesto? Are the BN leaders still cracking their heads for ideas?
Or is it stuck at the printers?
Selena Tay is a DAP member and a FMT
columnist.
