Criticisms justified as promises unfulfilled, admits Dr M

Dr Mahathir says the government is working hard to deliver on promises it made in the GE14 manifesto.

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad says it is time for Pakatan Harapan (PH) to be subjected to scrutiny from the new opposition, as it had not done well in fulfilling most of the election promises listed in their manifesto.

Speaking at a Merdeka event here, Mahathir said that the opposition’s criticisms were justified as it was also a known fact that most of the new Cabinet members in his government were “slow” and lacked the experience needed in running the country.

“We have promised, so we have to have ourselves examined and scrutinised by the opposition, which was the government before.

“Many things we put in our manifesto, thinking we would end up as the opposition. Now that we have formed the government, we have become slow because we are not used to being in government.

“But I think we will stick to our promises. We will try our hardest to deliver these promises.

“So far so good,” Mahathir said at a function organised by NGO Malaysians for Malaysia here in Bukit Damansara to commemorate the nation’s independence day today.

This comes a week after Mahathir said the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP), a five-member team tasked with gathering input from the grassroots and making recommendations for the prime minister to consider, was still needed because of PH’s inexperience.

Mahathir had said he needed to work fast, in response to criticisms that the CEP, which was originally tasked with only staying for PH’s first 100 days in power, had overstepped its boundaries and was now doing the work of the Cabinet.

Today, Mahathir said what was more important was delivery as a whole from the PH.

“Among the things we put in our manifesto was to limit the prime minister’s power,” Mahathir added.

“When we discovered that we would be in power, we limited this.

“The prime minister only serving two terms is okay by me.”

Mahathir, however, said there are a select few from the opposition who simply do not know how to “behave themselves”, now that they have been thrown out of power after 61 long years as the ruling coalition.

“Now that we are the government, there are some people who are experiencing some discomfort. They don’t know how to behave themselves, as if our manifesto is against them.”

The Langkawi MP also trained his guns at the previous government for allegedly stealing the “biggest amount of money” possible, adding it was BN which “destroyed” the system, leaving PH to clean up their mess.

“We need to replace everyone, but we don’t know who to replace because everyone is tainted.

“But we are progressing … And on this national day, we can celebrate and smile.”

Mahathir’s wife and daughter and a number of PH MPs were also present at the function. - FMT