GE14 | Kedah Pakatan Harapan has yet to come up with a shortlist of potential candidates who could become the menteri besar should the coalition win the state in the 14th general election, Mukhriz Mahathir said today.

“Not yet,” the Bersatu vice-president replied curtly when asked about such a list, based on a recording of his press conference at Dataran Stargate in Alor Setar.

Mukhriz was speaking to reporters after attending a Harapan ceramah to introduce the coalition’s candidates throughout the state.

At the ceramah, Amanah’s prospective Pokok Sena candidate Mahfuz Omar questioned PAS’ intentions for contesting in 160 out of 222 parliamentary seat, while purportedly aiming to win just 40.

The former PAS vice-president claimed that this is a deliberate attempt to split votes in the other 120 constituencies.

“Why is PAS contesting in 160 seats but only wants to win in 40? What is the purpose of the other 120? To the PAS members, those listening to this via Facebook Live, I urged you to think maturely… What is the meaning when we want to enter an election to win in 40 seats and lose in 120?

“I urge PAS members to see that the purpose of these 120 seats is none other than to fulfil Umno’s wishes to split the vote,” he said, while repeating the allegation that PAS leaders had received money from Umno, which the party has repeatedly denied.

Mahfuz (photo) stated that for this reason, PAS and Umno supporters should remain in their respective parties, but vote for Harapan nonetheless in order to “save the country’s future.”

'Empty promises'

Muhkriz, who served as Kedah menteri besar from 2013 to 2016, panned the Kedah BN manifesto as election promises that cannot be trusted.

The Kedah BN manifesto, which was launched on April 20, promised RM65.3 billion worth of projects and programmes, including an upgrade to the Sultan Abdul Halim Airport to allow international flights, a cancer treatment centre in Sungai Petani, and the Kedah Rubber City project, said to be able to create 15,000 jobs.

Mukhriz pointed out that the state revenue had never exceeded RM700 million per year, and hence the manifesto promises would take at least 95 years’ worth of state revenue to finance.

“So this is a lie. Don’t believe it, ladies and gentlemen. These are not words from someone who can be trusted. I urge you that we must understand what is true and what is false,” he said.

Mukhriz added that he had also tallied caretaker prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s election promises, and claimed that the sum came to RM10 billion.

This is questionable, he said, as the government appeared to be short on funds. He warned that a BN-led government would raised the GST rate after the election, and urged that they vote for Harapan instead, which has promised to abolish the tax.

The Bersatu leader also promised to address Kedah’s water issues by installing new pipes to cut down non-revenue water, which he said now exceeds 50 percent of all the state’s production of treated water and is among the highest in the nation.

He also pledged to repeat the successes of the Kulim Hi-Tech Park, which is said was his father Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s (photo) brainchild in 1996 and now provides 26,000 jobs, 95 percent of which are held by Malaysians who earn an average salary of RM6,800.

“This is the kind of investment we want, not the kind where we sell our land to foreigners,” he said.

'MB sleeping on the job'

Meanwhile at the press conference later, Mukhriz defended his tenure as menteri besar when questioned why he is making these promises now rather than addressing these issues before.

Mukhriz responded saying that his two-and-half years in office was too short a period to implement that many changes. 

“The BN government has failed miserably… Yes, but I was not given enough time to do it. Two-and-half years is not enough because as you know, it needs planning and implementations.

“Unfortunately, that the plans that we had set forth were not implemented by the new menteri besar (Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah).

“He was sleeping on the job, basically, and it is our intention to take over and restart the whole planning. It was already a good plan; it had good strategies, it came from the best minds from Kedah to think about what is the future for the state,” he stressed.

Responding to another question, Mukhriz stated he had inherited Kedah's massive debt of about RM2.6 billion to the federal government from previous administrations, which his administration had tried to service after being admonished by the Finance Mnistry for not having done so at all.

He said the Kedah government under him at the time were also in constant negotiations to reduce the debt, such as by writing off a RM50 million loan from the federal government that both parties had no record of, neither in terms of where the money came from or how it was spent.

“I think these negotiations can be continued, but on the condition that both the Kedah government and the federal government come from the same side, which is Harapan."