‘WINNING GE14 WAS EASY PART’
Work now cut out for Pakatan govt, says prime minister
PRIME Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Pakatan Harapan thought that winning the 14th General Election (GE14) was the hardest part.
Instead, he said, winning turned out to be the easiest part, as PH now had its job cut out for itself.
Dr Mahathir, who made a surprise appearance at the “Malaysians for Malaysia” National Day celebration yesterday, paid tribute to the people for bringing about the first change in government in 61 years.
“We thought it (winning the election) was the hard part, but now we’ve realised that it was the easy part,” he was quoted as saying by a portal.
He said when PH developed its election manifesto, it was based on the expectation that Barisan Nasional would win GE14, and that PH would need to keep the government in check.
He cited as an example PH’s pledge to name a representative from the opposition as Public Accounts Committee chairman.
He said by doing so, PH had placed itself in a position to be scrutinised instead.
“(There were) many other things we had put in the manifesto thinking we would be the opposition, but now we are the government.
“Among the things we put in our promises is to limit the prime minister’s power, then we discover that we are in power, and we limit the power that we now have.
“We have made these promises, so we have to have ourselves examined and scrutinised by the opposition, which was the government before this,” he was quoted as saying.
He said he was pleased that the National Day parade, after years of being held in different states, had returned to Putrajaya.
Putrajaya, he said, was an ideal venue for such events as its wide main boulevard was created for hosting such events.
Present were Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Hannah Yeoh, Petaling Jaya member of parliament Maria Chin Abdullah, women’s rights activist Ivy Josiah and activist Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir.