Pakatan shot itself in the foot when it cut subsidies, MPs admit

Chan Kok Leong Chan Kok Leong Updated 3 years ago · Published on 25 Aug 2020 10:55AM · 6 Comments

PKR’s Dr Lee Boon Chye says Pakatan Harapan did make some achievements during its 22 months in Putrajaya, such as lowering the voting age to 18 and making it mandatory for MPs to declare their assets. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, August 25, 2020.

PAKATAN Harapan committed “political suicide” by cutting subsidies to the poor and implementing reforms too slowly, two of the coalition’s lawmakers said in a webinar last night.

“The cutting off of subsidies to the poor was suicidal. We wanted to tighten the belt but ended up strangling our political survival,” said Dr Lee Boon Chye at the online event.

The webinar entitled “The Way Forward: What’s the next phase of political development” was hosted by the KL Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall.

Former youth and sports minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman agreed with the Gopeng MP.

“We focused on ICERD (International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination) and the Rome Statute when we should have worked on wage inequality and poverty.

“There was also too much distrust between the political partners,” the Muar MP said.

“We also wanted to close the tap (save money) in the first two years before opening it in the last three years (of our term). But that didn’t happen,” said Syed Saddiq.

The PH goverment collapsed after just 22 months in power.

The former Bersatu leader said PH also moved too slowly on reforms.

Citing Undi18 as an example, Syed Saddiq said that it took a year for the cabinet to agree on it.

“It kept on getting postponed and postponed until I put my foot down.

“The same happened for political party funding reform. I did the presentation which was subsequently looked through by the National Centre for Governance, Integrity and Anti Corruption (GIACC). 

“But it got postponed. The same happened to the two-term limit for the prime minister and (deferment of loan repayments from) PTPTN (National Higher Education Fund).

“We had the money and capacity, but we were too late. The reforms should have been faster.”

Former youth and sports minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman says Pakatan Harapan took too long to institute reforms and misplaced focus on treaties and conventions when it should have worked on wage inequality and poverty. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, August 25, 2020.

PH was not without its achievements, however, said Lee.

“There were Undi18, automatic voter registration and we also changed the way by-elections are conducted whereby the Election Commission is not just to win elections for the government.

“We also put in some anti-corruption measures such as asset declaration by MPs, GIACC, and the media was the freest (it had ever been during PH’s) 22 months,” said the former deputy health minister.

Another mistake PH made was trying to compete with Barisan Nasional on racial issues.

“Our greatest problem was trying create an Umno outside Umno and creating racial politics outside BN. 

“We can never be more Malay than Umno nor can we be more Islamic than PAS or more Chinese than MCA. In the end, we need to have a coalition with policies based on principles and not race,” said Dr Lee, who is of PKR.

Another panelist, Dr Michael Jeyakumar of Parti Sosialis Malaysia said the opposition needs to rebuild and  have a proper plan if it becomes government again.

“PH was just not ready to be government (without) having a proper plan on how to deal with rural poverty and wage inequality.

“It cannot look at rural poverty and leave it to the Malay parties because it’s a Malaysian problem. The same goes for the issue of Malays having difficulty getting into the SME sector,” said the former Sg Siput MP.

He added that PH cannot rely on the kleptocrat narrative alone.

“In fact, we cannot blame voters for going back to the kleptocrats as PH drove them there by removing subsidies,” he said. – August 25, 2020.

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Comments

  • Memories

    Posted 3 years ago by Teruna Kelana · Reply

  • Another thing that PH was weak at, was the social media presence.

    Najib has been using it effectively to launch attack and gain traction, attention and support from the community.

    Just see how he is still attacking PH even though he is convicted - it's business as usual for him.

    That's why the perception of PH is so bad in some/certain community towards PH government.

    Posted 3 years ago by Tavern Folks · Reply

  • There is truth to what has been said in this forum. Anwar kept telling the PH cabinet to help the people, help the poor but they didnt listen to him. Poor strategy and too concerned over the depleted government coffure was the cause of their downfall. Implementations were at snails pace. The people started losing their patience..Some government agencies didnt have a CEO or a chairman for more than a year. Things couldnt move. Some say its because of unseen hands in the PMs circle that want a big say in the government. Its water under the bridge. The former PM and PH have to live with their gross mistakes now.

    Posted 3 years ago by Elyse Gim · Reply

  • If they arrested the corrupted of the BN and PAS soon PH took over the Government, this situation would not have arrived for PH. Leaders of PH spent more time on politicking who should be the next PM. The moment PH won, the BN, and PAS corrupted were feard for their wellbeing but when the time passed in implementing laws to arrest all these culprits, the fear in them slowly got them organized themselves. PH was too contended of winning the election and that destroyed the immediate and good governance. Mahathir became very swollen-headed soon after winning and started unnecessary interviews and forming special panels that came to a dead-end when hey presented to him. Till today ALL the recommendations of the different panels were unknown. What a waste of public funds?

    Syed's fear was what many others feared too. Mahathir again was trying to control the cabinet and that was another biggest mistake of PH leadership. He faulted in trusting MOO and AZMIN too much beyond his own deputy and others in DAP who gave him the many seats to form the government. It was very disappointing to have this type of leadership.

    Posted 3 years ago by Swaminaidu Venkatasamy · Reply

  • yes.. agreed.... we keep telling the PH government... dont touch what ever subsidies or bantuan to the poor..fisherman..farmers..rubber tapper... etc....

    but degil....

    Posted 3 years ago by Shah ramo · Reply

  • You can say that again.

    Posted 3 years ago by Thomas Samuel · Reply