There’s no future for Pahang under BN

Pahang is bankrupt if not for the federal government’s funds that are sourced from borrowings, says PKR veep Chua Jui Meng.

COMMENT

By Chua Jui Meng

Pahang’s 13 successive years of budget deficits should convince the rakyat that the Barisan Nasional government is unreliable and a non-performer.

Just like the BN federal government’s misrule which has accumulated more than RM500 billion in debts, the majority of the people of Pahang, the rural poor and the Orang Asli, will continue to live in abject poverty under the BN.

There’s no future for you in Pahang and in Malaysia under the BN.

This is why the people of Pahang should give the Anwar Ibrahim-led Pakatan Rakyat the chance to govern in the next general election.

Greece is living proof of how the people will suffer if their country accumulates too much debt and goes bankrupt. The standard of living in Greece has plummeted and it will need to plunge 40% before the economy can be revived.

This will happen if the BN is given the mandate to continue to plunder the country’s wealth unabated to enrich their business cronies and the Umno elite.

Why must Pahang be so far behind Selangor in terms of socio-economic development? BN and Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob are leading the rakyat nowhere other than economic hell.

Pahang is bankrupt if not for the federal government’s funds that are sourced from borrowings.

Have you all benefited from Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak who is from your state? And he repays the Pahang peoples’ support with Lynas or nuclear waste.

Najib has also exposed himself as a coward and a Muslim prime minister who cannot even defend his religion against the attacks by Dr Chua Soi Lek and MCA.

He did not have the conviction and courage to accept Anwar’s challenge to debate Budget 2013 in Parliament. This debate would have been the best chance for Najib to convince the rakyat that if Pakatan ruled, it would bankrupt the country.

And Najib also said it was not a Malaysian culture to debate. So, what have all the elected representatives been doing in state assembly and Parliament sittings for the past 55 years, if not debating?

Najib and all his Cabinet members are cowards when not a single of them dared to be present in Parliament to face Anwar’s opening debate on Budget 2013.

Weak leader

When Pakatan offered free education for Malaysians in its alternative Budget 2013, Najib and BN just brushed it off, without offering any valid arguments, that the country would be bankrupted by such a move.

Again, Anwar challenged Najib to debate the free education issue, and again he goes into hiding.

Why is the prime minister so scared to debate on significant issues afflicting the people? Why can’t Najib let the people judge his and Anwar’s arguments over such important issues?

Now, even Dr Mahathir Mohamad who ruled Malaysia for 22 years says Najib is a weak leader.

Throughout his tenure as prime minister, Mahathir had misled the Malays and Orang Asli and enriched his family and cronies.

Mahathir was the one who, in 1991, amended the Land Acquisition Act 1960, to enable the states to seize or grab land cheaply from the people, especially the Malays, in the name of development for the private sector. And subsequently, Mahathir passed the land to cronies like UEM to develop and reap huge profits.

This is happening in Johor. Nusajaya and Pengerang are two glaring examples. I believe this is also happening in Pahang and in all other BN-ruled states.

With such cruel abuses of power, can you really expect and hope for the BN to lead the rural and urban poor, and the Orang Asli, to prosperity?

Chua Jui Meng is PKR vice-president and Johor state chief. He is also a former MCA vive-president and an ex-Cabinet member.