Najib's unfulfilled promises and Tsu Koon's "cockiness" and "self-denial"

When Najib became Prime Minister in 2009, he ambitiously appointed 6 Ministers to lead the 6 National Key Result Areas (NKRA): widening access to quality and affordable education, crime prevention, fighting corruption, raising the living standard of the low-income people, upgrading infrastructure in the rural and interior regions, and improving public transportation in a moderate period of time. The targets and details of these NKRAs were announced on 27 July 2009.

Although electricity supply coverage for West Malaysia is about 99%, the coverage in Sabah and Sarawak remains low at 80%. Consequently, Najib placed special emphasis on improving basic amenities in rural and remote areas of East Malaysia with special allocations of RM4 billion to construct 1,500 km of tarred roads in Sabah and Sarawak, RM2 billion to improve the water supply in East Malaysia to enable 90% of the population to have access to clean tap water, and RM3.9 billion to improve power-generation facilities to ensure that 95% of households have access to electricity supply.

According to the Prime Minister’s announcement on 27 July 2009, these projects were projected to be completed by the end of 2012 to benefit 2 million rural folks in Sabah and Sarawak. After more than 2 years, with the projected completion date just a little more than a year away, how much of the above ambitious projects have been implemented?

Far below target

In his parliamentary answer on 11 October, Minister in the PM‘s Department Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon said that the level of achievement with regard to the said projects was “satisfactory”.

In Sabah, as at September this year, 180.48 km of tarred roads have been completed or improved (target for 2011 was 366.67 km, therefore target achieved is 49%); 3,463 rural and remote households received clean water supply (target for 2011 was 18,063 households; target achieved 19%); 1,080 rural and remote households received electricity supply (target for 2011 was 4,509 households; target achieved 24%).

Things are not much better in Sarawak. As at September this year, 112.84 km of tarred roads have been completed or improved (target for 2011 was 222.95km theefore target achieved is 51%); 8,823 rural and remote households received clean water supply (target for 2011 was 13,024 households; target achieved 68%); 4,360 rural and remote households received electricity supply (target for 2011 was 21,792; target achieved 20%).

The actual achievements of the 6 NKRAs as at September 2011 falls way short of the Prime Minister’s grand targets and is much lower than the milestones projected for the end of the year and yet, Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon shamelessly rated the achievements as “satisfactory” (hasil yang memuaskan). I believe not many individuals can claim to be on par with the Minister when it comes to being thick-skinned, as well as the extent of his self-denial and cockiness.

All form but no substance

Every year, the federal administration showers us with promises but how many of them were actually realized? How many of them were mere lip service? How many of them sounded great but were impractical, hence they were “all form but no substance”?

In the 2012 Budget, Najib announced that 5 new highways will be constructed: Lebuhraya Pantai Timur Jabor-Kuala Terengganu, Lebuhraya Pantai Barat Banting-Taiping, Lebuhraya Segamat-Tangkak, Lebuhraya Central Spine and upgrade of the Kota Marudu-Ranau road.

However, let us not forget that in the 2011 Budget, Najib had also promised that 6 new highways were to be constructed. As 2011 draws to a close, not a single one of these highways has been built.

How much hope should we place on this new round of promises?

Teo Nie Ching is the DAP Assistant NationalPublicity Secretary and MP for Serdang