Before claiming to have fulfilled BN’s 2004 general elections promises, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has to explain why he performed worse than Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad after taking over as Prime Minister in 2003
____________
Press Statement
by Lim Guan Eng
________________
(Petaling Jaya,
Tuesday):
Prime Minister Datuk Seri
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has to
start afresh from basic
principles of socio-economic
justice, adopting a merit
system, delivery system based
on competency and efficiency
as well as respect for the
rule of law before he can
claim that the Barisan
Nasional administration has
fulfilled promises made at
the last general election.
His stewardship of the
country has been marked by
failures ranging from the
worst press freedom rankings,
worst corruption rankings,
and highest crime rate and
income inequality between the
rich and poor on record to
the first time ever that
Malaysian public universities
are not in the top 200
universities in the world.
Before claiming to have
fulfilled BN’s 2004 general
election promises, Abdullah
has to explain why he
performed worse than Tun Dr
Mahathir Mohamad after taking
over as Prime Minister in
2003. Malaysia was ranked at
No. 37 under the Transparency
International Corruption
Perception Index in 2003
before sliding to No. 44 last
year and No. 33 in 2007.
Similarly Malaysia ranked
124th in the 2007 Press
Freedom Index released by
Paris-based watchdog
Reporters Without Borders (RSF),
our worst performance ever as
compared to 104th ranking in
2003.
What is the use of having an
astronaut in space if our
universities fail to make the
international grade? The
failure of Malaysian public
universities to make it into
the top 200 universities in
the world under the Times
Higher Education Supplement (THES)
- Quacquarelli Symonds (QS)
World University Rankings (THES-QS)
is simply shameful. UM
dropped from 192nd last year
to 246th this year whilst UKM
dropped from 185th last year
to 309th. The best university
in Malaysia, Universiti Sains
Malaysia dropped from 277th
last year to 307th this year.
UPM dropped from 292 in 2006
to 364th.
The Prime Minister had this
to say,
"Three years ago, we had
Universiti Sains Malaysia
among the first 100 and
another two universities in
the top 200. Now, none of the
Malaysian universities are in
the top 200. "People will ask
- if (foreign) students come
to Malaysia, is it because it
is cheap? If it is cheap, we
must still have quality. We
cannot accept cheap education
but of low quality.”
Distribute Petronas profits -
fight corruption, fight
inflation!
The question is why has
Abdullah failing to deliver
on inculcating a culture of
excellence in education just
as he failed to wipe out
corruption or make our
streets and neighborhoods
safe from crime. Whilst the
crime index soared to its
highest level ever of 198,622
crimes in 2006, an increase
of 11.6% from 157,459 crimes
in 2005 to, the top police
officers were engaged in a
turf war.
Both the Inspector-General of
Police Tan Sri Musa Hasan and
Commercial Crime
Investigation Department
director Datuk Ramli Yusuff
were involved in allegations
of corruption with Tan Sri
Musa escaping charges of
corruption whilst the “RM 27
million man”, Datuk Ramli has
been charged. Is Datuk Ramli
the only one in the police
force who is corrupt or is he
being made the scapegoat for
the government’s failure to
wipe out corruption in the
police force or failure to
check rampant crime?
The greatest concern is the
inability of the government
to address the economic
hardships faced by the people
following rising prices and
inflation. First the
government has attempted to
cover-up the harsh impact of
inflation by claiming that
the inflation rate from
January to September 2007 is
a mere 2% when the true
picture on the ground place
it at more than 20%.
Secondly, the government has
failed to give assistance to
the middle-and lower classes
to maintain their standard of
living.
One supermarket manager told
me recently that he noticed a
marked increase in pilferage
of milk powder whose prices
have increased by 30% this
year. It is sad that normally
honest parents are forced to
steal just to feed their
hungry children because they
are unable to make ends meet
based on their meager pay.
Forcing small private
businesses to increase pay is
not the solution as these
small businessmen are also
affected by rising costs of
their supplies and inflation.
Worse is that some government
subsidiary companies have
failed to pay their workers
salary up to 8 months. This
is happening not in Kuala
Lumpur but in the state of
Melaka, which Abdullah only
praised recently for its
ability to pay RM 1.5 billion
in taxes last year despite
being such a small state. Is
he aware that Malays working
in a Melaka state government
subsidiary company have not
being paid for 8 months this
year?
The only solution is to
attack the causes of
escalating prices namely
corruption and distributing
the huge profits earned from
Petronas. Economists have
identified corruption as one
of the causes of inflation
Badawi can not deny that his
failure to prevent corruption
from getting worse under his
stewardship has only worsened
inflation. The exposes in the
Auditor-General report of
public wastage where a RM 40
two-tonne jack is bought for
RM 5,417 and the leaking
water in expensive RM 100
million renovation works in
Parliament house or newly
completed RM 400 million
court complexes are just some
of the examples of abuses of
power.
An urgent immediate solution
is to distribute Petronas
profits because it is immoral
for Petronas to benefit from
huge extraordinary profits
whilst 27 million Malaysians
are suffering. The Malaysian
government claims that it
spent RM 40 billion on
subsidies whilst Petronas
spent another 27 billion in
gas subsidies to the power
sector including TNB,
Independent Power Producers
and the industrial sector
last year.
If the government is to
abolish these subsidies, why
not give these subsidies to
ordinary Malaysians. Both the
government and Petronas can
afford to give an annual RM
3,000 to every working
Malaysian earning less than
RM 3,000 a month or an annual
RM 6,000 to every family with
a combined income of less
than RM 6,000 a month. Giving
out money has been done by
developed countries such as
Singapore which gives S$2,500
annually to every poor family
despite not having a single
drop of oil.
Doing so will not only
alleviate the economic
hardships faced by ordinary
people but also reduce
opportunities for corruption.
Better this huge RM 40
billion subsidy is
distributed amongst the
people than to be exploited
and employed by irresponsible
parties for corruption
purposes.
(13/11/2007)
* Lim Guan
Eng,
Secretary-General of DAP |