Selangor BN not even able to come up with a shadow Budget, chides PKR

After criticising the Pakatan Rakyat "left and right" over all sorts of governance issues, Selangor Barisan Nasional cannot even come out with a shadow budget, PKR leaders chided.

"Obviously this is quite unacceptable. How can any valid state government-to-be fail to present a road map especially a financial one to inform the residents of the state of what they can expect for their future. Maybe they figure racial and religious politicking with massive vote rigging will seal the vote for them, that's why they don't make the effort," Jui Meng flayed BN, which lost Selangor to the Pakatan in the 2008 general election.

Meanwhile, Umno's Satim Diman who is the Opposition Leader for the state said they preferred to focus on exposing the shortcomings, mismanagement and false promises made by the Pakatan Rakyat-led state government.

Ironically, this strategy of being only good for digging up and pointing out the flaws and faults of the government has been levelled at Pakatan leaders since they won 5 of Malaysia's 13 states in 2008, including Selangor the crown jewel and the richest of them all.

But Satim was oblivious to the growing rumblings that Umno, which leads the Selangor BN, did not have the "capability or brains" to come out with anything as complex as a full-fledged spending plan.

“I don't want to copy the style of federal Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. We don't want to engage in rhetoric or buat wayang put on a show,” Satim told reporters at the Selangor Umno headquarters a day ago.

We don't want to copy-cat Anwar

PKR Mentri Besar Khalid Ibrahim is due to table a balanced or slightly deficit Budget for 2012 on Wednesday, with allocations of about RM1.5 billion, up slightly from RM1.43billion. Selangor chalked its highest cash reserves in 28 years under the Pakatan and can well afford to loosen the purse strings. However, the Khalid administration is likely to go for prudence given the fast-souring federal economic landscape.

Even so, Khalid can be relied on to unveil a slew of people-friendly measures directed towards affordable housing, senior citizens and its popular free water program.

Meanwhile, Satim urged the people of Selangor to follow the tabling of the Budget closely and note the many “false promises” made by the state government in trying to win votes for the 13th general elec-tion.

“At federal level, they called it the national budget an election Budget. Will this state Budget be an election budget too? The Mentri Besar is not a competent corporate figure, but just good at selling assets,” said Satim.

He added added that among the issues the BN will raise is the failure of the state government to reduce quit rent and the sale of Selangor Development Corporation (PKNS) assets.

Asked to comment about DAP publicity secretary Tony Pua's statement that the number of civil servants should be reduced, Satim said this showed that Pakatan was not a good administrator.

“I challenge Pakatan to trim the size of the civil service in its states first. Selangor can start first. Let's see if they can do it,” he said.

Related Stories: All eyes on Selangor's Budget: Will it be enough to stave off BN?

Malaysia Chronicle