Started out on the wrong foot?

DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang has said that the cabinet this time is the weakest and dullest in all of BN's 56 years of tenure as the federal government.

COMMENT

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak seemed to have started out on the wrong foot in his second term as Prime Minister. You don’t think so?

Well, he made the biggest blunder by labelling the results of the 13th general election as a ‘Chinese tsunami’ immediately after the polls results were announced.

Appended below is ample evidence to show how wrong he is. These results reveal BN’s Chinese candidates winning in Malay-majority seats by defeating PAS’ and PKR’s Malay candidates:

1. P151 Simpang Renggam, Johor – won by BN’s Leong Teck Meng with a majority of 5,706 votes. (Total number of votes is 19,754.) There are 56% Malay voters.

2. N04 Cheka, Pahang – won by BN’s Fong Koong Fuee with a majority of 1,185 votes. (Total number of votes is 5,324.) Malay voters make up 69% of the electorate.

3. N22 Gurun, Kedah – won by BN’s Leong Yong Kong with a majority of 1,296 votes. (Total number of votes is 11,411.) Malay voters account for 57% of the electorate.

4. N03 Pemanis, Johor – won by BN’s Lau Chin Hoon with a majority of 1,329 votes. (Total number of votes is 10,305.) There are 56% Malay voters.

5. N54 Pulai Sebatang, Johor – won by BN’s Tee Siew Kiong with a majority of 3,412 votes. (Total number of votes is 13,554.) 63% is the number of Malay voters.

On the other hand, two DAP Malay candidates had to win with the help of Malay and Indian voters. Listed below are the results and the details:

1. P80 Raub, Pahang won by DAP’s Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz with a majority of 2,814 votes by defeating BN’s Hoh Khai Mun. Malays make up 49.8% of the voters, Chinese 40.3%, Indians 6.5% and Orang Asli 3.1%.

2. N30 Mentakab, Pahang won by DAP’s Tengku Zulpuri Shah Raja Puji with a majority of 1,554 votes by defeating BN’s Chuah Boon Seong. Malays make up 51.9% of the voters, Chinese 40.1%, Indians 5.8% and Orang Asli 1.6%.

“Saying that the polls results is a Chinese tsunami shows up PM Najib as emotional and irrational as his outburst is not based on factual analysis and he must be reminded that his government is a minority government,” said former PAS Kuala Selangor MP, Dzulkefly Ahmad.

Double XL cabinet

Another blunder committed by PM Najib is in regard to the size of his new cabinet which is “Double XL” as labelled by Dzulkefly who mentioned that Indonesia which has a population of 250 million has the same-sized cabinet as Malaysia whereas Malaysia’s population is less than 30 million (around 28 million).

“Therefore the size of the cabinet is much higher than the Malaysian population warrants it,” commented Dzulkefly.

“Many old faces in the cabinet also indicate that PM Najib remains in the shadow of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and this means he has to ensure his own political survival.

“This explains the inclusion of several faces such as Khairy Jamaluddin, Nazri Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rahman Dahlan who can help PM Najib to stay in power,” said PAS Pokok Sena MP, Mahfuz Omar who also reminded everyone that now there are 35 ministers compared to 29 when Najib took over the Prime Minister’s post in April 2009.

Najib has also strengthened his power by having eight full ministers and two deputy ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department to ensure that he stays as Prime Minister, Umno president and BN’s chairman.

The exchange of portfolios between Hishammuddin Hussein (from Home Ministry to Defence) and Zahid Hamidi (Defence to Home Ministry) is seen by Mahfuz as Najib’s way of shielding himself against any eventualities by ensuring that the top two minister’s listen to him.

“Najib’s performance is worst than former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and he will probably be facing some internal conflict as Dr Mahathir has said that Najib needs to step down if he fails to regain the two-third majority in Parliament,” remarked Mahfuz.

Mahfuz stressed that such a big cabinet also adds to the government’s operating expenditure besides lessening its efficiency and quality of service through its massive bureaucracy. The formation of the cabinet is to implement the government’s programmes and should not be a reward to friends who have done well in the recent 13th general election.

He is also of the view that this large cabinet will increase the national debt that has already passed the RM500 billion mark since Najib became the prime minister.

Said Mahfuz, “As the nation’s debt is more than RM500 billion, the size of the cabinet should therefore be smaller so that the cost of maintaining the cabinet can be decreased. The savings incurred can then be used to service the national debt. The large cabinet is just to save Najib’s political career and has nothing to do with the people’s welfare.”

GST on the way?

DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang has weighed in his view by saying that the cabinet this time is the weakest and dullest in all of BN’s 56 years of tenure as the federal government.

The refusal of the MCA election winners to take up posts in the cabinet is also a headache for Najib. Therefore it remains to be seen whether the extra large cabinet can function efficiently and effectively.

The third mistake committed by the prime minister pertains to the GST (Goods & Services Tax) wherein Dzulkefly remarked that “It is certainly not ‘Janji Ditepati’ because 7 percent is ridiculous especially for the low-income group”.

“This 7% is very unfair because GST is across the board and therefore the low-wage earner has less to save as the GST will eat up more of his income”.

Thus with all these mistakes in the space of less than a month, let us now start to evaluate the performance of the BN federal government.

Selena Tay is a DAP member and a FMT columnist.