Report card
Pakatan Harapan ministers, many of whom do not have prior experience in government leadership positions, will be closely watched by Malaysians to see if they can make good the coalition’s pre-election promises.
The government has been in place for five months and we hear the prime minister saying he is not happy with the performance of the ministers. In your assessment, how have the new ministers performed over the past five months, considering that the country is going through a period after a debt-driven growth, and the external environment is not that great either.
Nungsari: I think there is an unrealistic convergence of expectations on the ground, that things are going to get better. There is an expectation that things will get cheaper, of taxes getting lower, and income getting higher. This is running head on with debt rising and potential interest rate increases. So, the expectation does not really gel with the reality. Interest rates are on a rising trajectory, debt is high, we are trying to manage the deficit and need to sort out many institutional changes. This, I think, is a big chal- lenge. To be fair to the new ministers, they are also trying to figure out how to manage all this within their own portfolios. If I were to grade them, they wouldn’t get an ‘A’ for now.
Lee: When I made an assessment of the 10 promises on Pakatan Rakyat’s first 100 days, I gave them a ‘B-’. But we must understand that there are many complexities and hurdles. For example, certain things may need a two-third majority to make a change. We have to apply some objectivity in assessing how they have performed. There is a mix of new and experienced ministers, and it has only been five months.
They took over from an administration that had been in place for 61 years. They had to open the books and assess what the low hanging fruits are, and what they can only accomplish in the medium and long term. They have to choose between being popular by keeping to all they had promised in their manifesto or being realistic. The expectation is very high, but the government has to manage the budget based on the revenue it has, its priorities and the wish lists from corporates. I think it is good for them to manage the expectations of the electorate. There is still a long way to go - another four-and-a-half years before the next general election. If the external economic factors worsen, however, there will be more pressure. They also have to plan for this possibility. They have to leave some funds in the contingency budget in the event that the external situation takes a turn for the worse. The key point is that they must not impair the economy.
Gomez: I take a different perspective. We have a new government that promised us change, but the question is, was it really a change? What we are seeing is the return of the 1990s establishment – Dr Mahathir, (Datuk Seri) Anwar Ibrahim and (Tun) Daim Zainuddin are back in power. I looked at the mid-term review, trying to see if there is a new big picture - something that is fundamentally different from Barisan Nasional.
Let us look at the 1st Malaysia Plan. One of the first things Dr Mahathir did when he came into power was to set up a new ministry - the Ministry of Economic Affairs. He then transferred many bumiputra-based institutions into this ministry. Then came the BEC. Later in the 4th Malaysia Plan was the first national car, Proton. If you look at the past five months, he has repeated these things. He has also spoken about privatisation and divestment. When I look at this, I don’t see anything different. I see a plan which seems to be the repetition of ideas from the past, and I have concerns about this.
However, to be fair to Pakatan Harapan, we must recognise that it inherited an administration which requires major structural changes. Among the areas which need major structural changes is the public service - the bureaucracy. If you read the 9th Malaysia Plan, former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi talked about the need to reform the public service, and that he was held back by “little Napoleons”. As much as we may complain about the politicians, at the end of the day, it is the bureaucrats that have to implement the policies.