FOUR individuals from Pakatan Harapan (PH) are said to be strong contenders for the post of Perak menteri besar should voters there hand the state back to the opposition in the 14th general election.

They are former Perak Menteri Besar Nizar Jamaluddin, state Amanah chief Asmuni Awi, state Bersatu chief Ahmad Faizal Azumu, and state PKR chief Dr Muhammad Nor Manuty.

All four are professionals and former civil servants and all were born in the silver state.

Nizar, an engineer by profession, was Perak’s first menteri besar from the federal opposition in the 2008 general election when then Pakatan Rakyat (PR) won the state. But Barisan Nasional took back control the following year after three PR assemblymen defected and became BN-friendly independents.

Asmuni is a lawyer, Ahmad Faizal a businessman, and Muhammad an Islamic scholar.

Of the four, Bersatu’s Ahmad Faizal is the youngest at 48. The other three are in their 60s, with Muhammad the oldest at 69. Their parties are allies in the PH coalition.

Asmuni said regardless of who is made menteri besar, the person would have to fulfil the promises in PH’s federal and state manifestos.

PH launched its national manifesto earlier this month but has yet to announce its manifesto for Perak.

“Personally, I would like to see Perak return to its former glory. It was one of the most developed states in Malaysia (because of tin and rubber exports),” Asmuni said.

The coalition is expecting a close fight in Perak but is confident of winning the state from BN again and neutralising PAS’s spoiler effect. PAS had been with the PR pact in 2008 and was Nizar’s former party.

In the 2013 general election, BN retained Perak by winning 31 out of the 59 seats in the state assembly but lost the popular vote to the now defunct PR.

Pledges to improve Perak

The Malaysian Insight asked each contender to state the policies they would address if they were appointed menteri besar. Nizar, with his past albeit brief experience of leading the state government, had the most elaborate answers.

The Changkat Jering assemblyman said that PH should renegotiate existing agreements with several federal agencies such as Felda, Felcra, Risda, Tenaga Nasional Bhd and Plus Expressways Bhd to increase Perak’s revenue and use the funds to provide social services.

“These agencies have been given large pieces of land by the state government with no charges. This was when they were public entities. Now they are profit-making companies.

“They are using the land to make tonnes of profit. It’s only fair for them to pay royalty to the state, then we can redistribute the wealth back to poor Perakians,” said Nizar, who is also Perak Amanah deputy chairman.

He added the royalties could be used to provide subsidised public transport for rural villagers to go to hospitals, dialysis centres in towns, or subsidise a portion of National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN) loans for Perak youths.

“We could provide all sorts of public services and amenities like in Selangor and Penang once we increase the state’s revenue,” he said.

PH would stop the practice of giving large tracts of land to state-owned company MB Incorporated for sand mining. Such lands could instead be turned into high-tech industrial parks to provide high-paying jobs for locals, said Nizar.

Asmuni said PH could also convert a large number of idle mining pools in the state into solar farms.

PH would ensure the tender process for logging concessions is open and transparent, added Nizar.

Both he and Asmuni agreed the Perak’s rainforests had high biodiversity value and should be conserved.

“The state government has to identify and gazette these high value, sensitive, virgin forests so that nobody can touch them,” said Nizar.

Conservation experts have lobbied for more than a decade for BN to stop logging the 130-million-year-old Temenggor Forest Reserve in northern Perak.

Bersatu’s Ahmad Faizal, meanwhile, said PH would improve the welfare of the people of Perak by tackling affordable housing, education and health.

“We need to build more affordable homes for the youth. We need to look into how we can help children from needy families get better education.

“The state must find ways to provide better healthcare services even though this is supposed to be a federal matter, because the waiting time in public hospitals is too long. People get sicker while they wait,” he said.

Muhammad, however, declined to elaborate on what he would personally like to do for the people of Perak if he became the menteri besar.

“I believe the federal and state manifestos would augur strong public support,” said the Dewan Rakyat senator. – March 24, 2018.