Rural folks ‘disappointed’ with PH’s failure to deliver election promises
MIRI: The failure of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government to fulfil its 10 pledges in its election manifesto within the first 100 days in office, which ended on Aug 18, has caused displeasure among the rural communities.
Assistant Minister of Local Government Datu Dr Penguang Manggil said he was personally very disappointed about PH not keeping to its promises.
“Their promises of inclusivity especially in the Federal Cabinet, to return our rights, minimum wage, lower cost of living and many more are far from satisfactory.
“Not only that they ( PH) did not deliver what they had promised but played hide and seek as well and giving 1,001 reasons why they did not,” said the Marudi assemblyman.
In fact, Penguang pointed out, what the PH- led federal government did was diverting the attention of the masses to 1MDB, the yacht, the jet and other matters.
“The real issues are not addressed accordingly, neither as they promised in their manifesto,” he said
Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau concurred with Penguang, saying the PH- led federal government should be truthful if they cannot deliver their election promises within 100 days.
“The biggest disappointment or let- down from the 100 days election promises made by Pakatan Harapan was their inability to deliver two promises, at least from the rural Sarawak point of view are to reduce cost of living with the abolishment of GST, and to reduce cost of diesel and petrol to RM1.50 per litre,” Dennis pointed out.
“The rest of their election promises to the rural population, they do not really give a damn,” he added.
Dennis pointed out that the abolishment of GST at the early part of the 100 days meant nothing to the rural people as the price of goods and cost of living remained as during GST implementation.
“Meaning PH used the GST issue to hoodwink Malaysians into voting for PH. Based on feedback received and personal survey I did in my constituency, the promise to reduce cost of living for the rakyat still remains a mystery,” he said.
“One just needs to go to coffee shop and order kopi susu. You will not fail to notice the increase in price as compared to last year. So, I hope PH government will work very hard to ensure their promises to reduce price of goods will really materialise with good proof,” he added.
On the promise to reduce diesel price to RM1.50 per litre, Dennis said many unsuspecting voters were convinced that the PH government would reduce the price immediately after taking over the federal government.
“Many rural folks who were tired of paying the true price of the commodity believed that would really happen. But unfortunately, the prices of diesel and petrol remain as they were before the 14th general election and what the PH government only did was to stabilise the petrol prices which means little or nothing to road users.
“As I said, the rest of PH election promises to be delivered within the 100 days mean nothing much to the rural folks,” he added.