PM’s Sandiwara in Sarawak!

PM's Sandiwara in Sarawak!

By Martin Jalleh

The PM has excused himself from his duties in Putrajaya (at the taxpayer's expense of course) and planted himself in Sarawak for six days till polling day to give the BN campaign a much-needed push.

He seems to be panicking for he has asked the whole Cabinet to park themselves in the Land of the Hornbill and endlessly praise the component BN parties there, whilst pouring scorn on the Opposition.

It appears that Taib Mahmud's campaign has been quite pathetic. After 30 years as CM there is little proof that the people have progressed! But, he now promises he will turn Sarawak into the richest state after the elections!

Najib believes that as PM his personality, popularity, position and plenty of "I-help-you-you-help-me" pledges, will lessen public preoccupation with Taib and successfully persuade the masses to vote for BN.

It was pure comedy though when Najib gave his assurance that Taib will step down as Sarawak CM "some time after the state election" and Taib responded he will – "in a few years"! Najib smiled, painfully…

Najib's first public meeting, a 1 Malaysia meet-the-leaders session which was plied with goodies in exchange for their attendance, degenerated into what Lim Kit Siang described as a "1 T-Shirt, 1 Tupperware circus".

Not to worry, the PM will fly to many more places to parade and preen on the political stage, promote his "Transformation" programmes and relentlessly pooh-pooh the Opposition's combat cry of "Ubah"!

Najib had proudly proclaimed to the Sarawakians that the BN not only promises "but we can deliver and we have delivered for the country". Pray tell, what has Najib delivered since he became PM two years ago?

His think-tank "Performance Management on Delivery Units" (Pemandu) has provided Bolehland with only a plethora of projections, programmes, powerpoint presentations, persuasive charts, and promising plans!

Indeed, it has been a prime "performance" by the Prime Minister, thereby making perfect his slogan "1Malaysia: People First, Performance Now", as he offers the rakyat a pipe-dream and a pie in the sky!

Sarawakians need to only look at last year to recognize the PM's play-acting for it was clearly a year of public relations, publicity stunts, political rhetoric, populist slogans and pure propaganda puff by the PM to win over public perception.

Najib's flagging image was re-engineered by Apco Worldwide, a global public relations consultant (paid RM77 yearly with taxpayers' money). He was portrayed as a premier who was ready and raring to redeem Bolehland with his purported radical reforms.

But all he has managed to achieve so far is to present to the nation his slew of acronyms, showcase of plans and pledges, and spate of potential privatised projects costing trillions!

His 1Malaysia slogan spun out of control when it was pointed out to him that it is a concept propagated by a Government that promotes and perpetuates a race-based party system – which is the main obstacle to our unity!

Since the introduction of 1Malaysia there has been unprecedented racist extremism and religious bigotry emanating from Perkasa and within Umno and in particular by Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia.

Whether it be human rights or civil liberties, the mainstream or online media, Najib's government continued to spin its illusory world and Bolehland's standing in international indexes continued to plummet.

When it came to the economy, Najib chickened out of reforming the "bastardised" NEP and relegated the "New Economic Model" (NEM) to merely a "trial balloon", as a very pleased Perkasa patted him on the back for giving in to their pressure.

Statistics in 2010 showed that our 2009 national debt rose to RM362.39 billion or 53.7% of GDP, its highest level in five years. It soared to RM407.1 billion in 2010 but the Government said it was no cause to worry!

There was an exodus of money from Malaysia on a scale which surpassed that during the Asian crisis. Malaysia's FDI plunged 81% and we were the only Asean country to experience negative FDI flow in 2009.

Najib's "transformation programmes" did not deter the damning diaspora data in Bolehland to rise to a level which he himself admitted has threatened his vision of transforming Malaysia into a high-income nation by 2020.

In 2010, in the midst of Najib's many pronouncements of transformation, the people (especially those in Sabah and Sarawak) struggled with soaring prices and senseless high cost of living while corporate giants and the PM's cronies escaped subsidy cuts.

By the end of 2010, the Father of Transformation had only farcical changes, fantasised figures, flip-flops, a frail economy, failing institutions and flawed policies to show, resulting in persitent public protests.

Hopefully, the people of the Land of the Hornbill will put a halt to Najib's hype, hypocrisy and hogwash by rejecting the BN component parties at the coming polls, thereby paving the way for genuine transformation in the next general elections!
Dr Azman
The Hague, Netherlands