Umno leaders are sceptical that the DAP will be able to deliver the 'sweeteners' it promised if Pakatan Rakyat captures Putrajaya, citing opposition promises from the 2008 general elections which they claim still remain unfulfilled.

NONE Last Friday, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng ( right ) announced a promise of RM1,000 to all senior citizens, nation-wide free Wi-Fi access and the abolishment of the saman ekor and Road Transport Department (RTD) blacklist should Pakatan seize Putrajaya in the next general election.

Lenggong parliamentarian Shamsul Anuar Nasarah, when contacted by Malaysiakini , rubbished DAP’s pledges, saying that while it is easy for the opposition to make such grand promises, they always choked when the time came for delivering.

He pointed to the DAP’s failure to abolish highway toll charges and land issues which remained unsettled in Penang, both of which he claimed DAP had promised to address prior to winning the state in 2008.

        

“They make promises without research and when it is time to fulfill those promises, they find that they cannot do it. Either it is not practical or they do not have the resources.”

He likened DAP’s promises to ‘political candies’, adding that the party will pretend to change its spots and do what it can to cloud the rakyat’s perception.

‘Empty promises’

Agreeing with Shamsul Anuar was former Selangor menteri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo who told Malaysiakini that DAP’s pledges were ‘empty promises’ which would not benefit the rakyat.

Populist measures like DAP’s promises, he said, would use up money needlessly but not address the root of the problem.

“How long can they sustain (the promises)? They will not last [...] they make the promises but like in Selangor they never really fulfill them.”

NONE “Even free water in Selangor is causing (Menteri Besar) Khalid Ibrahim a lot of headaches. It is nearly RM150 million a year,” said the Selangor Umno leader.

Khir ( left ) said if DAP were really as great as they say they were, they should lead by example.

“Do it first in Penang, then we’ll believe you are serious about it. We would like to see them do it in Penang and roll it out in Kedah and Kelantan too,’ he challenged.

More importantly, said Khir, was that DAP’s promises did not address the real problems such as the lack of job opportunities and plummeting foreign investment which was the real cause of the rakyat’s problems.

‘Insulting our intelligence’

Kota Belud parliamentarian Abdul Rahman Dahlan claimed the ‘sweeteners’ wouldn’t make DAP and Pakatan any better at governance.

“If DAP’s Lim Guan Eng thinks that RM1,000 or abolishing the saman ekor and free Wi-Fi make his party the better party to form the next federal government, he is insulting the intelligence of Malaysians.”

ummo youth pc 100306 abdul rahman dahlan He said there were already enough populist promises and approaches to economic policies from the opposition, adding that the measures would gain popular support in the short term but would cause the nation to suffer in the long term.

“Quick fixes like populist policies will only make things worse and may possibly bankrupt the nation as we are heading more and more towards a welfare state status,” opined Abdul Rahman ( right ).

The tough measures taken by the federal government lately such as subsidy cuts, he said, testified towards the gravity of the challenges facing the nation’s economy.

As such, he believed that the current Barisan Nasional federal government had a steadier grip and ‘was to be trusted more’ in handling the economy and governing the nation than the opposition.