Pakatan’s populist reforms ‘too good to be true’, says Najib

PUTRAJAYA, Jan 10 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak went on the offensive today and dismissed Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) widely-publicised 100-day reform plan as mere gimmick, and challenged them to tell how they expect to pay for it. Labelling it “populist” and “irresponsible,” the prime minister claimed that the policy ignored the country’s financial limitations.

“We cannot take such a populist approach to the point where we sacrifice our country’s future. We cannot afford to do that, it would be irresponsible to the point where our children and our grandchildren will pay the price and suffer.“As a matter of fact, we do not even have to wait for our children or grandchildren, according to our calculations, if these promises are implemented without taking into account the country’s finances, it would just take two years,” said Najib today.

PR’s policy framework, touted as the “Pakatan agenda”, is part of a list of promises the opposition coalition says it will implement within 100 days of taking over Putrajaya.The prime minister said today that he had “faith” that voters, particularly civil servants would be able to distinguish from Barisan Nasional (BN)’s policies than that of PR, which according to Najib did not make any promises it could “not keep.”

“I am a firm believer in the phrase if it’s too good to be true, then it is definitely not true. If we believe in something too good which is not based on a firm footing of something concrete, we are then lying to ourselves, and if we believe it is our own fault,” said Najib.He likened PR’s promises to a person who dreams of expensive cars and houses but in reality could not afford it.Comparatively, according to Najib, the present federal government under BN was a “responsible” one, which did not make any promises which the coalition could not deliver.

Highlighting the various transformation plans brought by his administration — the Government Transformation Programme (GTP), National Key Results Areas (NKRA), Economic Transformation Plan (ETP), Najib said he was confident that Malaysia would replicate last year’s economic success in getting over the global financial crisis.Speculation is rife that a general election will be held as early as next year although BN’s mandate does not expire until May 2013.Among the instant reforms promised by the PR coalition, within the first 100 days of taking over Putrajaya, is acknowledging the role and sacrifices of civil servants by studying the current pay schemes and increasing the incentives for teachers by RM500 a month.

PR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has claimed that a PR federal government could afford to pay for a proposed allowance for teachers — projected to be RM3.2 billion annually — by eliminating the “wastages” of the BN administration.Other “instant” reforms include the repeal of the Internal Security Act (ISA), abolishing the toll system by instructing Khazanah Berhad, Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and other government bodies to take over highway assets from the concessionaires, as well as offering free wireless Internet access to those in urban and semi-urban areas.

Source : http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/pakatans-populist-reforms-too-good-to-be-true-says-najib/