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By Wong Choon Mei, Suara Keadilan In a determined bid to regain popularity, Prime Minister Najib Razak has announced a slew of measures, most of which have been previously promised before by himself and his predecessors, including fighting corruption, crime and improving the quality of education.
But while grand-sounding, Malaysians have heard it all before. And instead of improving, the situation has been steadily worsening through the years. The top question remains, can Najib rid Malaysia of graft and tame a rampant police force when he himself has been abusing the system and therefore also guilty? “In the two critical areas of crime and corruption, all he could say was that drastic steps will be taken to combat crime and graft, of which details would be announced later,” said DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang. “Najib had been a Cabinet Minister for 23 years since 1986, serving before that for four as deputy minister and another four as Pahang mentri besar, and yet he has nothing to announce whatsoever on the two burning issues in the country, crime and corruption, after 100 days as prime minister.” In a televised address to the nation on his 100 days in office, Najibs said his administration would focus on six key areas. He did not provide further details: - The prevention of crime; - The fight against corruption; - Access to quality education; - The improvement of the living standards for the lower income group; - Improvement of rural infrastructure; - Improvement of public transportation. Threadbare measures
He also announced a host of populist steps akin to his famed election goodies to re-attract voters to his Umno-BN coalition. But the threadbare measures drew a sharp backlash. Said Tony Pua, DAP information chief: “This is an insult to the people.” Said Kit Siang: “Conspicuously missing is the main challenge to make all Malaysians one united people 52 years after Merdeka and 46 years after the formation of Malaysia with Sabah and Sarawak.” The measures announced on Saturday were: - a 20 percent discount for those who use toll roads more than 80 times a month; - an additional 3,000 individual taxi permits; - the allocation of 44,000 units in public housing projects to be offered for sale to tenants; - a 50 per cent reduction in license fees for petty traders in the Federal Territories; - drastic steps to be taken to combat crime and graft of which details would be announced later; - a pledge to settle birth registration issues in east Malaysia; - a pledge to settle citizenship applications in East Malaysia; - a pledge to build up to 1,500 kilometres of rural roads; - efforts to be made to improve water and electricity supply to east Malaysia; - reduction in the cost of motorcycle riding courses from RM500 to RM211; - new Amanah Saham 1Malaysia with 10 billion units offered for sale to all Malaysians above 18.
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