PM: Harapan manifesto ‘difficult to implement’, 100 days not enough

The prime minister said that the government will take more than 100 days to fulfil all the pledges outlined in Pakatan Harapan’s 14th general election manifesto.

In his speech when opening the American Chamber of Commerce's annual general meeting today, Dr Mahathir Mohamad admitted Harapan had crafted the manifesto without the possibility of forming government in mind.

“Of course, when we were thinking we would not win (the election), we made strong promises which today we find difficult to implement.

“We said (in the manifesto) that in 100 days we will achieve 10 different promises. But now we are finding it quite difficult to meet our objectives in 100 days,” he said.

Among the 10 promises Harapan previously promised to achieve within 100 days of forming government are to allow creditors to postpone their repayments to the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN), abolish the debts of Felda settlers, increase the minimum wage, set up a committee to discuss the Malaysia Agreement 1963, extend Selangor’s Skim Peduli Sihat nationwide, and to form royal commissions of inquiry (RCI) for alleged financial scandals involving 1MDB, Felda, Mara and Tabung Haji.

Some other promises have already been achieved - removing those blacklisted for not repaying their PTPTN loans, abolishing the Goods and Services Tax (GST), reintroducing fuel subsidies, introducing Employees Provident Fund (EPF) for housewives and reviewing all mega infrastructure projects.

However, the Harapan chairperson assured that the government ultimately was committed to fulfilling all its promises.

“But still we are doing something about them and we will still deliver on our promises but it might take a little more time than 100 days.

“[...] we are working very very hard, day and night, to try to rebuild the economy of this country,” he said, thanking the people for being “considerate” in accommodating the delays.

[More to follow] -Mkini