THE government has ordered Chief Secretary Mohd Zuki Ali to form a committee to sift through every party’s manifesto and pick agendas to adopt, Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said.

The Pandan MP said with the unity government consisting of coalitions and parties that have separate manifestos, there is a lack of clarity on which campaign promises to follow.

“We are a coalition of parties with different backgrounds, different policies, each actually had our own manifesto going into the general election,” he told reporters after the Dewan Rakyat meeting today.

“But now that we’re in government, for us to quickly combine all the manifestos, there is a time constraint.

“At the cabinet level, there is already a committee that is working to pick and choose, and combine all the specific programmes from each of the coalition manifestos.”

However, the PKR deputy president said decisions are bound by a set of principles as outlined under section 2 of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed by the government parties.

The MOA, among others, vows to eradicate poverty regardless of race, give fair economic chances to the poor regardless of background as well as safeguard freedoms to assembly and free speech and enhance the separation of powers between the three branches of government.

Last Friday, parties under Anwar Ibrahim’s unity government signed an memorandum of understanding pledging support for Anwar as prime minister and back any confidence motion or bill in the Dewan Rakyat.

Any MP who votes against Anwar’s leadership or bills tabled by the government will automatically be deemed to have quit as a lawmaker.

The agreement was signed by Pakatan Harapan (PH), Barisan Nasional (BN), Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and Warisan.

The signatories are PH chairman Anwar, BN chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, GPS chairman Abang Johari Openg, GRS chairman Hajiji Mohd Noor and Warisan president Mohd Shafie Apdal.

The respective parties’ secretaries-general also signed the document. – December 20, 2022.