I am dumbfounded by the reply of Rosmah Mansor’s assistant Datuk Rizal Mansor to Pakatan Harapan’s recent statement to cut Prime Minister Department (PMD) spending, which includes to shift the allocations to PERMATA to the respective ministries for early childhood education purposes. He said that a few of my colleagues and I who visited PERMATA on 6 October 2016[1] were satisfied with PERMATA after our visit.
He seems to have selective memory on what we discussed during the several public exchanges we had on PERMATA. During the visit, we made it clear that PERMATA programs need to be under full ministries especially women ministry, instead of under PMD. I quote some parts my media statement on 6 October 2016 here:
“If there is only one thing I can raise in my visit today, it is my position to urge Putrajaya to park different PERMATA programs under the respective full ministries to ensure that the programs are run in a coordinated manner and with clear overall strategy together with other government programs.”
“ I see no reason in terms of operation, coordination and strategy that there is a need to have a separate agency under PMD to achieve the same goals Permata wants to achieve. Removing PERMATA from PMD also helps to reduce the size of PMD which has been bloated since Prime Minister Najib took over the helm.”
This is in line with the suggestion of my Pakatan Harapan colleagues – Khalid Samad, Saifuddin Nasution and Liew Chin Tong, to shift the allocations to PERMATA for early childhood development purposes to the respective ministries. Such suggestion should be seriously considered by Putrajaya so that tax-payers monies will be spent more efficiently with more coordinated strategies and operations in early childhood education.
In addition, I would like to remind Datuk Rizal Mansor that during the visit, we requested PERMATA to disclose its account. PERMATA asked us to write to Auditor General (AG) for the account, to which we did. However, the AG replied to us to say that the account has been returned to PERMATA and it was only right that we ask for the account from PERMATA. We wrote again to PERMATA to ask for the account, to which we received a reply on 10 January 2017 saying that there is no need for them to disclose the account. We seems to be have been kicked around without a proper reply from PERMATA. Perhaps Datuk Rizal Mansor can shed light on this?
All in all, we see no reason why the programs currently run by PERMATA cannot be run by the full ministries, which surely have more experiences and expertises than PMD in early childhood education. Perhaps Datuk Rizal Mansor’s over-eagerness in defending PERMATA under the PMD is for the reason other than the benefits of Malaysian children? Who actually benefits the most with PERMATA and its allocation under the PMD? The answer is obvious.