Media Statement by Tony Pua, DAP National Publicity Secretary and Member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya Utara in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, 14 September 2013 in Kuala Lumpur
The Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Razak sought a new mandate from the rakyat in the 13th General Election on the promise that his victory will ensure that his cornerstone “transformation” programmes will finally be carried out in earnest.
However, despite his victory, Dato’ Seri Najib had yesterday broken his promise of a transformative government. In particular one which will ensure that his government will be transparent, accountable and practices good governance as demanded by the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) launched with much fanfare in 2009.
He had during the launcing of Utusan Malaysia’s new headquarters yesterday, declared in no uncertain terms that he hopes “all government agencies, Government-linked companies and private companies especially those owned by Bumiputeras, will show their support by giving more advertisements to Utusan…. Only this can help keep Utusan on track”.
The blatant call by the Prime Minister himself for government agencies and companies to increase advertising in Utusan Malaysia is a poorly-disguised bail-out attempt using tax-payers’ monies. It has become clear that Utusan Malaysia is no longer commercially viable, and Dato’ Seri Najib is making a desperate call to rescue its racist and extremist mouthpiece.
The Prime Minister’s hypocritical action is even more shocking given that the owner of Utusan Malaysia is Umno, where Najib himself is its President. Hence, Dato’ Seri Najib is in effect channeling the rakyat’s money to save his own Party, a direct conflict of interest.
This proves that a leopard will never change its spots, and the Prime Minister is only a pretend-reformer, an image cultivated by making “transformative” promises via grand public relation campaigns. These promises are broken at will whenever the interests of UMNO-Barisan Nasional as well as their cronies are at stake.
Dato’ Seri Najib Razak has demonstrated that would not hesitate cut subsidies on essential goods and services which affects the quality of living of millions of ordinary Malaysians, and impose new taxes on those who don’t even earn enough to pay taxes today. On the other hand, he would continue to encourage wasteful spending by his government departments and companies on items such advertising heavily in a newspaper with a small and declining circulation.
This is the principal reason why Dato’ Seri Najib can never be trusted to carry out our much needed reforms, and why the people’s financial interests will continue to be jeopardised.
Tony Pua
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