KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 2 – The government in power can seemingly do whatever they want, even if it contradicted what they had espoused against in the past.
That seems to be the message coming out of the Port Dickson by-election with the latest news on all the goodies promised by the candidate representing both the federal and state governments, PKR President Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Wasn’t it not too long ago that this was called “election bribery” by the very same people now backing Anwar.
As it is, at the Sungai Kandis, Seri Setia and Balakong state seat by-elections -following the demise of their respective elected representatives – since the 14th general election, there were complaints on the same against Putrajaya and the Selangor government.
Following some outcry from Bersih and other NGOs, there was some response, and the promise was made not to repeat the same.
Well, looks like promises are made to be broken. One wonders if the promises made in this by-election will also be broken just as easily.
Broken promises in First 100 Days
After all, post GE14, the Pakatan Harapan government has chosen to take the easy way out in not fulfilling all the promises in the manifesto relating to the First 100 Days in office.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was even reported to have said that the promises were made on the premise that PH was not expected to win and that BN would continue to rule.
Still, now everyone, especially voters in Port Dickson, should take a closer look at the promises made over the past few days of campaigning by Anwar.
Just last night he said a “major project” was heading to Port Dickson to help improve the economy in the popular resort town.
He told about 2,000 Chinese voters, that this project was tied to investments coming from Taiwan, though he was vague on the details.
Talking big on plans alone
Over the weekend, following nomination day on Saturday, Anwar had promised the people of PD that three other projects – a new five-star hotel, an airline programme and an education programme – were being lined-up.
All these mere promises were even proudly touted by Anwar, as if that should be the only reason the people should vote for him.
“I have already lined up four plans in the two days of campaigning,” he was quoted as saying by The Malaysian Insight.
Not surprisingly, the cleaning of beaches in Port Dickson was also part of “his plans”, with Anwar declaring he wants to do so to attract more tourists.
“We want clean beaches here. We want this place to look good,” he said, according to TMI.
Plans for PD not made in past one week
For a town like PD, in Negeri Sembilan that has been always under the Barisan Nasional, there is naturally room for more improvement on infrastructure, beaches, and investments to boost employment, that should be carried out by the new state and federal governments.
It is not for Anwar to make these promises because it did not happen over the past week. It is either in the pipeline or part of the aspiration of the people of PD, already made known to their newly-elected representatives following GE14.
One can only hope that the new Election Commission chairman, Azhar Harun, will take note of this issue and call out what could be considered an election offence.
– NMT
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