‘GIVE PH FIVE YEARS TO FULFIL POLLS PLEDGES’
Evaluate PH then, make decision in GE15, says Dr M
PRIME Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has urged Malaysians to give the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government five years to implement its pledges.
At the end of the five-year period, the people could evaluate and judge PH’s performance, he said.
He said Malaysians who no longer had faith in the government could determine PH’s future in the 15th General Election (GE15).
He said the government found it tough to fulfil its pledges due to the severe damage caused by the previous government.
“If you no longer have faith (in the government), you can vote in GE15. They (the people) determine (the outcome). We promised a lot and will take five years to implement the pledges.
“But during the drawing up of the manifesto, we didn’t get full information... and when we took over, we found that the damage done by the previous government was far more serious than we thought.
“This made it hard for us to fulfil the pledges,” he said at the 58th annual general meeting of the Malaysian Muslim Welfare Organisation here yesterday.
He was commenting on the National Worry Index survey by think tank EMIR Research, which found that Malaysians were in a state of maximum worry due to the cost of living, jobs, economy and security.
The survey found that respondents either disagreed or were unsure whether PH was competitive and the nation was on the right track or that the economy was on a solid foundation.
The survey was conducted between Sept 5 and Oct 10. It involved 1,992 respondents, comprising 65.6 per cent of Malays and Bumiputeras, Chinese (28.2 per cent) and Indians (6.2 percent).
Dr Mahathir said the high cost of living was due to the weak ringgit and transportation cost.
“We are facing a problem with the cost of living due to the fact that some quarters devalued our currency.
“If in the past, one United States dollar gave you RM3.80, it is now RM4.20. As such, things are getting more expensive. This is one of the reasons and the government is discussing this. The prices of some goods have been reduced, but the people do not see that.”
On security, he said the government needed to conduct a thorough review of the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012.
He said the government did not want to release terrorists who were involved in crimes such as bombing. At the same time, he said, the government could not detain suspects for too long without evidence.
Dr Mahathir said many Muslim nations had yet to develop despite having the capabilities and strengths.
He said their inability to progress had resulted in Muslim nations being perceived as weak, with Muslims continued to be suppressed, controlled and abused by other countries.
He said Muslims were not prohibited from achieving progress.
He said even though Muslim nations could compete with developed countries, they had no desire to do so.
“We cannot protect Muslims and Islamic countries. Why? Because we are weak.
“Our countries (Muslim nations) are sometimes given extraordinary wealth. But we are weak in administrative matters. We have no advantage in equipping ourselves with the ability to defend Muslims.”
He said none of the 52 Muslim countries could be considered a developed nation.
Dr Mahathir said member countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) were not able to reach an agreement on many issues.
“We have OIC, but we cannot agree (on many things). So we may have to form small pacts comprising two to four states each to make progress.”