KOTA BAHARU, March 1 – The people of Kelantan should give the mandate to Barisan Nasional (BN) to rule the state in the 13th general election to enable the state to become a developed state by 2020, which is only seven
years away, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin(Pic) said. He said this was because Malaysia was capable of achieving the status of a fully-developed country earlier than 2020 and the government would like to see all states, including the currently less developed Kelantan, to become fully developed states.
“The state administration, which can’t see eye-to-eye with the federal government, will become the main obstacle to the government’s efforts to develop Kelantan, especially when it involves land issue, which is under the
jurisdiction of the state government,” he said at the 1Malaysia People’s Gathering at the Kelantan Rural Transformation Centre in Tunjung here today. Approximately 30,000 people attended the gathering, including International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed and Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Dr Awang Adek Hussin.
Muhyiddin said the Kelantan people were in the mood to change the state government as they had realised that PAS was not capable of governing, but was only capable of making false promises and spending the state’s wealth, including by allowing uncontrolled logging activities.
“If there’s no support from the federal government in terms of development projects, Kelantan will be left behind.
“If the PAS-led Kelantan government has no vision and keep giving priority to other issues, how can they focus on people’s project?” he said.
Muhyiddin, who is on one day visit to Kelantan, said the BN government was the only government capable of developing the country, increasing the people’s income, reducing poverty rate, providing education by building 11,000 schools with 460,000 teachers for 5.4 million students nationwide. He said the federal government had also allocated RM100 million to government-aided religious schools last year and would continue allocating the same amount this year. On the unsolved clean water woes in Kelantan, the deputy prime minister said the federal government would give an additional allocation of RM2.9 million for the installation of water filters in 654 kindergartens and 137 hostels statewide so that the students’ education would not be affected. He also promised that the water woes would be solved when BN government took over the state.
Meanwhile, Muhyiddin also rapped PAS leaders, especially Menteri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, who said the financial aid given to the federal government to the people, was like scattering feeds to animals. He said this was because in reality, PAS, which claimed to be upholding Islam, had failed miserably in helping the Muslims in Kelantan.
“Most of the mosques in Kelantan were even built through the federal government’s efforts,” he said.
BERNAMA
