Umno leaders don’t give a toss about ordinary Malaysians, says Nurul Izzah

The Malaysia Insider

December 08, 2013
Latest Update: December 08, 2013 06:04 pm

 

Umno leaders and members are living in a comfort zone without a care for the current issues affecting Malaysians, said Parti Keadilan Rakyat's Nurul Izzah Anwar (pic) today.

The PKR vice-president expressed dismay that issues like declining education standards, rising cost of living or threats to the nation’s security and sovereignty were never brought up or discussed at the recently concluded Umno general assembly.

 

Nurul, who is also the Lembah Pantai MP, said Umno was only interested in consolidating its grip on Putrajaya and introducing economic policies in various guises which only benefited the elite in Umno.

"At a time when the public, including the Malays, are being increasingly burdened by the rising cost of living, Umno leaders and delegates are busy talking about how to consolidate their hold on Putrajaya," she said in a statement today.

"The future prospects of Malays and Malaysia look bleak under Umno if they do not implement inclusive national reconciliation efforts."

The release recently of the 2012 Programme for International Assessment (Pisa) poll results by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) showed that Malaysia was lagging far behind its neighbours. Malaysia ranked 52nd out of 65 countries.

"How would Malaysian parents feel when they find out that 11- and 12-year-olds from Singapore, South Korea and Vietnam are on a par with our 15-year-olds? The Government's failure to address this problem points towards a bleak future for the next generation.

"Putrajaya has failed to increase the standard of our educational excellence to enable our pupils to remain competitive in the global arena. What our children will inherit from us is low income and a culture of getting into debt just to support themselves with the increasingly higher costs of living.

"It looks like, in the future, Malay children will require the assistance of their parents by living at home, borrowing from their parents and sharing vehicles. Does Umno think that quality education is not important?”

She also hit out at Umno president and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for repeating the mantra - "short-term pain for long-term gain" and "our path towards becoming a high-income nation".

Nurul Izzah hit out at Umno leaders for ignoring the rising cost of living which is hitting the public.

While acknowledging that credit ratings agency Moody's had upgraded Malaysia's outlook from stable to positive, she said it had been based on improved prospects for fiscal consolidation and reforms.

However, Nurul Izzah noted that none of the Umno delegates had asked an important question at the Umno general assembly. Why did global ratings agency Fitch Ratings revise Malaysia's sovereign credit rating outlook from stable to negative?

"Not a single Umno leader or delegate raised the issue of leakage, wastage, corruption and economic mismanagement. Are the public paying for these shortcomings in the form of the goods and services tax, increased fuel costs, removal of sugar subsidy, higher electricity tariffs and City Hall's assessment rates?

"Because of the overspending and leakages by Putrajaya, taxpayers have to suffer. All the additional revenue Putrajaya hoped to raise is to increase Malaysia's credit rating and to help the elite few in Umno through the Bumiputera Economic Empowerment Agenda."

She said the public was not blind, as former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad recently remarked that the level of corruption under the Najib administration was frightening compared with his time in office.

Nurul Izzah said the chest-thumping during the Umno general assembly for 1Melayu indicated the paranoia in the party.

Instead of focusing on issues of national security and sovereignty, the delegates and party leaders were more interested in the 1Melayu slogan.

"The recent statutory declaration by former city CID chief Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim regarding the Pulau Batu Puteh case, the intrusion by armed Sulu gunmen into Lahad Datu, the indiscriminate issuance of identity cards and the murder of a Taiwanese tourist on Pom Pom island did not even warrant a mention at the assembly.

"Are national security and the country's sovereignty no longer important to Umno? No one mentioned that the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will be a new form of economic colonisation." - December 8, 2013.