KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 5 – The first televised forum of the Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) 100-day plan last night saw a Barisan Nasional (BN) MP questioning the opposition’s track record in Selangor.
Rafizi Ramli, who represented PR in the forum which was broadcast live over state television channel TV1, however, defended the Selangor government’s achievement, presenting a list of financial assistance allocated to the public since 2008.
Hulu Selangor MP P. Kamalanathan had described the reform plans contained in the Orange Book as plagiarised, claiming that the government has been in the process of implanting some of the agenda in the book launched in December last year.
“If this is an assignment, whoever wrote this Orange Book would have failed and been suspended from his university because of elements of plagiarism,” said Kamalanathan, who won a by-election in April 2010.
“‘Some of the programmes are in fact works in progress,” said the MIC man who was the first to speak at the forum.
Kamalanathan continued to question PR’s ability to govern, citing the failure of the Hulu Selangor District Council’s (MDHS) failure to pay the electricity bill for street lights in some parts of the constituency.
“There was a change in the Selangor government, but have the promises of Election 2008 been fulfilled?” asked Kamalanathan.
In his response, Rafizi, who is also the PKR strategic director, said the Selangor government has successfully distributed a total of RM150 million in financial assistance to some 500,000 residents of the nation’s most developed state.
The assistance, said Rafizi, includes free water to each household for the first 20 cubic meters every month and a one-off contribution upon admission to university and financial assistance to the next of kin of those who died.
“Before Pakatan came to power, it was not possible but now it has been proven that the state government is able to distribute the state’s wealth to the public,” said Rafizi, who serves as the chief executive of the Selangor economic advisory office.
Among the reforms promised by the PR coalition, within the first 100 days of taking over Putrajaya, is an increase in incentives for teachers by RM500 a month.
PR also promised to repeal of the Internal Security Act (ISA), abolish the toll system by tasking Khazanah Berhad, Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and other government bodies with taking over highway assets from the concessionaires, as well as offer free wireless Internet access to those in urban and semi-urban areas.
Another panellist Datuk Dr Mahani Zainal Abidin from the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) questioned the feasibility of PR’s plans to abolish toll roads, calling it an expensive form of nationalisation that would put the country in debt.
She also warned against reviewing agreements with the private sector, such as the promise to cut fuel subsidies for independent power producers (IPPs), saying that it would impact investors’ confidence in the country.
“If the rules are changed half way, there will be no certainty, investors would lose confidence,” said Mahani.
“Are we going to ease the people’s burden at all costs, or in such a way that it is affordable to the government? If we want to do it at all costs, it will increase our debt and make it impossible for the government to pay it off,” she said when commenting on PR’s plans to redistribute the national wealth.
Rafizi, however, pointed out that the North-South Expressway only requires RM295 million a year for maintenance with a profit of more than RM1 billion annually, making a government takeover an affordable exercise.
He also argued that the general public would not suffer from the cut in subsidies for IPPs as it currently benefits mostly export oriented industries.
PR had previously argued that its reform plans would only cost RM19 billion, almost similar to the amount allocated for IPPs for fuel subsidies.
The ambitious plans have been described by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak as having ignored the country’s financial limitations and irresponsible. - Malaysian Insider
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