Government Transformation Programme (GTP), a mirage.
YB Dominique Ng, the ADUN for Padungan, has described the Roadmap for Government Transformation Programme (GTP) of the Prime Minister as a mirage to hoodwink Malaysians, especially in Sarawak, a roadmap which will not be realized or sustained.
6 key performance areas or six areas of improvement, or National Key Results Areas (NKRAs), were announced: reducing crime, combating corruption, raising the living standard of low-income citizens, widening access to education, improving infrastructure in rural areas and upgrading public transportation.
“ Sure these are not only valid areas of concern, but also an admission of the failure of governance under Barisan National; in Sarawak, these have been the neglected areas since the formation of Malaysia.” Says Ng.
“ Yet, these are not the only fields where the Barisan National Government has either failed, or has been strong on rhetoric but poor on delivery. With respect to Sarawak, I refer to the omitted or unmentioned areas of Healthcare in the public sector, social welfare, labour rights, public administration, human rights, tourism growth, environmental protection, historical and cultural heritage preservation among others, where Sarawak is trailing far behind.”
REDUCING CRIME
“The public is increasingly alarmed by the rising crime rate. In Sarawak, even some top public figures, and government officers and have fallen victims; the public now feel doubly insecure and vulnerable. Statewide, about 40 cases of crime are recorded per day on average, some 14,000 cases in 2009.
Suhakam Commissioner to Sarawak, Dr. Hirman Ritom, at an AZAM talk on Human Rights in October 2006, discussed poverty, education failure, unemployment and criminality. “I urge the government to address confounding fundamental issues which may be at the roots of rising crime rate.”
“Root causes promoting recruitment to crime must be addressed though broader political legislative and administrative actions to redress socio-economic injustice .”
Poverty and socio-economic alienation are the major concerns of the marginalized and dispossessed; they suffer directly. Government and society has to understand that poverty related crimes affect everyone of all strata of society.
Raising the living standard of low-income citizens
I had said that it is not merely the eradication of abject starvation-level poverty, but also ensuring that the poor-rich gap does not keep increasing till it reaches a socially unacceptable level. Relative poverty can reach levels at which it leads to widespread adverse outcomes, even social instability.
“Under the NEP, towards the aim of eradication of poverty, the Federal and State BN governments have clearly failed, jointly or separately. With rising costs and real incomes falling, some 30-50 % of the people may soon be suffering from relative poverty, depending on the threshold criteria used.
The PM’s proposal to institute a minimal wage, admittedly a worthy start, has however come too little and too late. The essential welfare of Malaysian workers have been neglected by the BN government too callously and for too long. There has not been developed under this government an inflation-indexed wages and incomes policy; simply a government sleeping at the wheels in basic social policy.
The fruits of economic growth in better times have not been fairly shared with the actual producers of growth, but been siphoned off by corruption, incompetency and wastage in Government.
At MR 750 per month, it works out to around MR4.70 per hour, a clear shade below MR 1000 per month proposed by Parti Keadilan Rakyat.. Yet MR 1000 may be inadequate, if the fuel subsidy is steadily withdrawn, GST kicks in or international food grain price rises, these among other price inflators.
If no wealth-distributive strategies such as developing a social safety net, are put in place in time, poverty in Sarawak and in Malaysia can be expected to escalate rapidly.”
COMBATTING CORRUPTION.
Transparency International Malaysia recently announced Malaysia’s position in the TI Corruption Perception Index 2009. In this latest survey, Malaysia’s ranking has plunged to its worst ever in the last decade, standing at 56 among 180 nations, with a CPI of 4.5 (out of 10).
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission had also revealed that up to 60% of government allocations for Sarawak, amounting to billions of ringgit, and meant for vital infrastructure projects between 2002 and 2008, have been misappropriated.
“There is thus a serious competency, accountability and transparency problem concerning public expenditure festering for years in Sarawak,” Ng had said earlier. “Much was promised by the previous PM, and little of consequence achieved. The former PM, promised to deal with some 18 big crocodiles, but caught a couple of anchovies; which means the 18 or more crocodiles still thrive in the muddy streams!”
“There has been virtually nothing substantial in combating corruption in Sarawak, not even a meaningful beginning, “ says Ng. “Little progress shall we expect from the current PM.”
PUBLIC TRANSPORTION :
“I said before that the Governnment should make a master plan for the development of public transport in Sarawak. The people of Sarawak are indignant that the public transport in the State is far inferior to that of Malaya before 1957. Road infrastructure is fourth grade, rail service still a daydream, city Rapidbus may take a decade to introduce.
“Urban traffic congestion is worsening by the year from population growth, and increase of vehicles registered, alongside a public transport infrastructure so remarkably deficient. It all adds to stress of urban living, increased air pollution and loss of economic productivity in Sarawak.”
The Minister of Housing Development and Urban Development, Datuk Amar Abg. Johari has last month bemoaned the decrepit bus service of Kuching.
Improving infrastructure in rural areas
“The responsibility of rural backwardness is clearly the BN government’s decades of rural neglect. The track record in Sarawak under BN does not give room for optimism as basic rural infrastructure is still lacking in many communities, e.g. piped water, electricity, tar-sealed roads, and affordable housing, not to mention IT access. This is against the backdrop of native NCR land dispossession, large scale deforestation and mammoth palm oil estates, the benefits of these latter not shared by the rural communities as they deserve to.”
Widening access to education
“The fundamental right for mother tongue education is severely compromised when schools of vernacular streams and mission schools are not fully funded as national schools are. A vibrant multicultural nation must be founded on multi-cultural educational content, in addition to a core of national emphasis.
On the other hand, mere access to education has been greatly devalued by continued slide in the quality of education, especially higher education.”
Concluding, Ng says, “The BN government, Federal and State, is leading the people on a steep and slippery slope of decline in performance indicators in a range of socio-economic sectors.
To realize the dreams of raising the living standard of low-income citizens, a high income economy, widening access to education, better public sector healthcare, improving urban and rural infrastructure and upgrading public transportation, the critical drivers of success are
- political will for genuine and not bogus reform,
-clean and competent governance,
-sustained GDP growth,
-retraining and attracting both human and financial capital, among others.
The BN government has not just put its own 2020 vision in critical jeopardy. It is dragging the nation down in competitiveness viz a viz several other countries of the developing world, not to mention the little Dragons of Asia.
This Transformation Programme will have little impact at both macro and micro levels of national life.”
Dominique blog here.
