The people voted for a change of the Penang state government in the 2008 General Elections, hoping that it would bring new vitality, progress, and improvements to their quality of life.

Unfortunately, two years later, things are not getting better. There is no continuation of development plan. Almost everything in the state is a standstill.

Admittedly the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) state government has done well to “pull wool over the people’s eye with their clever publicity stunts and dramatic shows. Nevertheless the truth will prevail and their “ugly heads” will be exposed.

Political scientist Wong Chin Huat, who was present at the debate, concurred that the PR state government was good at acting in serial episodes.

Wong added that Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (PGRM) and its president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon were not good at “acting”.

“Things which needed to be said out, they didn’t say so. This is one reason, the party did badly in the 2008 General Elections,” said Wong.

On March 13, Gerakan secretary-general Teng Chang Yeow took on the Chief Minister’s policy adviser and Bukit Bendera MP Liew Chin Tong in a political debate hosted by NTV7. The topic of the debate in Mandarin was Key Performance Indicators (KPI) Competition: Change in two years, Penang gets better?

Liew was floored to the ground by Teng who came with facts and figures. Liew had no answers to Teng’s line of attack. Many in the audience gave approval ratings to Teng who showed his skillfulness, forcefulness and articulation on matters concerning the people and Penang.

Here Gerakan4u reproduced some of their key points.

Teng stressed that when BN was in power, it also faced many obstacles and challenges.

“Therefore, regardless of which party is in power, every effort must be made to develop Penang. The state cannot afford to remain behind in terms of development and progress,” he said, to applause from members of the audience.

Teng said the previous BN government was very keen in promoting environmental protection and Penang became the first state in Penisular Malaysia, to have two state parks, as well as a National Park.

In his usual hard-hitting, no nonsense address, Teng put forth his arguments in a frank and direct way.

“The PR state government even showed a lack of urgency on such an important matter to gazette Pulau Jerejak as a Forest Reserve as it did not want to further restrict the development plans. I understand that a consortium had earlier approached the state government on a proposal to develop Pulau Jerejak. Is this the reason for the delay in the gazettement. The state government should give an explanation.”

“Also, the PR state government has been telling the whole world that it has institutionalised allocations to schools.”

“But when I repeatedly checked the 2009 and 2010 Penang budgets, I couldn’t find any specific funding allocated for schools. So, I can only presume that such allocations announced by PR state government are included in the expenditure under the Chief Minister and State Secretary Office. So, how can the PR government call the allocation “institutional funds”? This is nothing new. Theirs is just a continuation of what the previous BN administration had been doing.”

Liew criticised the federal government, saying there is “one country two systems” policy, including unfair funding to Penang and non-cooperation of civil servants.

“This is the reason the PR state government could not perform well.”

When Teng challenged Liew to give specific examples, Liew evaded the question and went on to dwell on some other trivial matters.

Teng then said the federal government had continued to fulfill its commitment under the Ninth Malaysia Plan to the Penang State Government for the past two years, and to complete infrastructure development and other projects.

Referring to the issue of uncooperative civil servants raised by Liew, Teng said if there was no co-operation, how come the state government is able to implement various programnes such as senior citizens’ rewards program, no plastic bags campaign, etc.?

by Editorial Desk
gerakan4u.com