KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak today declared that Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) will be carried out annually as an initiative to ease the burden of the people. He said BR1M 1.0 and BR1M 2.0 were good examples of the government’s commitment to ensure the welfare of the people, especially the low income group.
“Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to announce that the government will continue the BR1M initiative annually,” he said when tabling the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) annual report at Auditorium Perdana, Angkasapuri, here, tonight. Najib said the people must therefore choose a government that can bring about transformation and not one that can ruin the future of the people.
“Never for once try to experiment by gambling our future away because it will be extremely difficult to repair the damage done,” he said.
The Prime Minister said the current government was responsible and one that fulfilled promises and placed the welfare of the people as its top most priority.
“That is why, before making promises, we conduct studies to find out if promises made to the people will benefit them or not, whether it will be beneficial for a short, medium or long term.
“Secondly we will determine whether we are able to deliver the promises, not just promise for the sake of doing so,” he said. Najib said as a country that practices democracy, it is the people who would decide which party would form the government.
“In reality though, not all government’s have the same capability. Yes, it is true that the expectation of the people is the same towards every government but the performance of every government differs.
“Certainly some governments will be effective while others may be weak and not able to fulfill the mandate given to them. That is why some countries are able to elevate its people from poverty and bring about development and later acquire a developed nation status,” he said.
He said the status of some countries may remain unchanged, continue to be trapped in poverty while there are also countries that are regressive, slipping from a developed nation into one that is stricken by poverty. Najib said the time was almost up for the people to decide on the road map of the country for the next five years.
The choice would be to decide one that has reliability, aspiration, future, can continue the transformation of Malaysia and fulfill promises made. As such, the people must decide between the current government that has proven itself to be a government that can be trusted, shoulder the future, work hard to ensure a prosperous future for their children and a government that can continue policies that have proven to be successful.
“Or those on the other side who when they speak, they speak with full of deception, but when given the mandate, they just take it easy or ignore,” he said.
Najib said the government is not one that prepares a manifesto during the general election but when given the mandate to rule, the promises are not fulfilled. He said not only was the manifesto not fulfilled, they come out with new promises by publishing an Orange book (Buku Jingga) which was compiled in haste and without research to analyse the financial implication that it can cause to the nation’s coffers.
“That is not all, it looks like even before the ink on the print of the book could dry, they have unveiled a new manifesto. In reality though, if the old grandiose promises have been ignored or not fulfilled, it will be almost impossible to fulfill the new ones.
“Therefore, can the people hold stead to their new promises? Can they be really trusted? Can we gamble the future of our children and grandchildren by believing them? Based on their poor track record, will they be able to establish a better future? he asked.
The Prime Minister said to ensure transparency and integrity of the election process, he, as the Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman had signed the election integrity pledge to make sure the 13th General Election will go through a clean and fair election process.
“For that, I call on all political parties to walk the talk and have a high sense of moral to sign a similar integrity pledge. Lets build a Malaysia that can ensure stability, peace and harmony for all,” said Najib.
BERNAMA
