Zambry: My job is looking after the people

By Clara Chooi and G. Manimaran - The Malaysian Insider

IPOH, FEB 6 — As the assemblyman for Pangkor, Umno’s Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir was well-liked by his constituents. As the Perak Mentri Besar, however, he has been the target of much public scorn and ridicule the past year.

After all, he came into office as the result of a power grab by Barisan Nasional one year ago today.To add to his problems, Zambry was also unfortunate enough to have taken office at a time of economic crisis. Still, in his one-year tenure as mentri besar, he has held his own and survived the fiery and persistent opposition from his Pakatan Rakyat foes as well as an angry Perak electorate.

In an exclusive interview recently with The Malaysian Insider, Zambry spoke extensively on the challenges he faces, his goals and vision for Perak as well as his prediction for the next election.

Q: So one year on, do you think more people like you now or less?

A: (Laughs) You ask Manimaran la! Well, I can’t judge. If I judge and say that everybody loves me, then that is overreacting. To me, what is important is to give service and you can see the people’s gestures towards you when you are on the ground. I have been doing this for the past one year, going down, meeting the people, and you see from the smiles on the faces of the people, the body language, you can see the difference. I think Clara knows this, she has been following this.

Q: So are you confident that you have convinced the people of Perak that you are the government and you are not just a pretender government?

A: It is not a question of whether I am convinced if we are the government because we have been the government right from the very beginning. We have been through the process of democracy and followed the rule of law. All those other issues were not started by us in the first place. So I continue as a government and I assume my role as a mentri besar, looking after the people as well as doing the job that was presented to me as a mentri besar.

Q: You speak about the process of democracy but as we all know, in a system of democracy, the government is elected by the people. (In Perak) this would obviously be contended by other parties for they do not see the Barisan Nasional government as having been elected by the people. What are your views?

A: Coming back to the process of democracy — it is based on elections, right? This process is when the people choose their representatives, right? So there you have 28 from the BN, you have six from PAS, another seven from PKR and 18 from DAP. The point of forming government into one coaliton (Pakatan Rakyat) did not arise at all at the time. We have to come back to the point that when the people chose them, it was because of the PR or because of what? It was because of their respective parties. And people chose us, the 28 of us. So whether it is back to the people, it is a question of when the people chose you to be their representative. And now, probably many are questioning whether we are the representatives of the rakyat. Of course we are the representatives of the rakyat, based on the process of election.

Q: Datuk Seri, you have been in office for a year. Looking forward, what is your vision for Perak?

A: That is the most important thing for us because being the mentri besar, I cannot play politics all the time or what I call, the emotive politics, all the time. You cannot be an effective leader by simply playing on the rhetoric; telling the people that you are the best, you are the rightful leaders or whatever it is. To me, the most important thing is what you can do for the state, for the betterment of the people because after all, being a mentri besar, it is also what the people expect you to be. You are a leader for everyone so people will judge you based on what you are doing on the ground and what you have delivered for the betterment of the people.

So when I was first appointed, the first thing I did was not to continue playing politics. I really focused on how to develop the state. One of the ways was to immediately form the Institut Darul Ridzuan, the IDR, which is a think tank for the state. We managed to get the good brains, the youths to come and join me, and together we worked on how to build the state. And thank God, now we have a clear vision. We call it Perak Aman Jaya. It is a very big blueprint for the state, emphasising on seven major outcomes, no more outputs, in line with the Federal Government’s and the Prime Minister’s dream to have a high-impact economy. Those are the areas that we are working on.

In addition to that, we also have to be serious about spearheading our economic activities. I formed the Economic Council of the state and also to ensure that there is more participation from the public, I formed the Council of Civil Society. I look at them as the third force that you cannot ignore. They have their responsibilities and their rights to voice their views. I have also been working on attracting investments and now they have begun coming in. And Clara also knows sometimes that I even have to meet up with investors in my residence if I cannot meet them here due to my workload.

Q: When you speak of improving the economy, specifically which areas are you referring to? Tourism and?

A: It is not only tourism, it is many other areas. In fact in my recent visit with the Prime Minister to Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and India, and also when I went to the US, I sat down with a number of people including the capital venture groups. We discussed the possibility of looking at the right economic focus for the state.

One of the areas, besides tourism, we also have other advantages like biotechnology, which is very important these days. Also, the manufacturing sector. For example during my visit to the US, we had the discussion on creating a new generation of solar technology.

Education is another area. There are several universities about to set up here, including my recent discussion with one Harvard university professor when I was in the US and they are also considering to have one customised programme with us, for the region or for Asia. Meanwhile, work is underway also to set up the medical university, the Premier International University, despite all the hiccups they are facing due to financial strains but now they are coming seriously to it. So I hope with all this... because Perak has the human capital... so we hope we can have better education.

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Another area, as you all know, Perak has a lot of minerals, a lot of natural resources. We do not only want them (investors) to come and take out these resources but we want to have a final product done here. And then, of course, agriculture is another area. So we hope that with all this combination, the right focus, the economy would be able to spur our economic growth back on track.

Q: What kind of growth are you looking at for the next year and the next five years?

A: Well, I do not want to be too optimistic because whether you like it or not, our economy is an open one and we will of course be affected by what is happening around the world. I am expecting to have a 5–7 per cent growth, I hope in the immediate year. With the speed that we are moving now, I think we can move forward fast.

Zambry has been the target of much public scorn and ridicule the past year. — Pictures by Choo Choy May

Q: What was the rate of growth in 2009?

A: It was about 3 per cent or so. It was caused by the world economy.

Q: A long time ago, Perak was very famous because there were many people, a lot of industries. And then the tin mining industry crashed and the human capital left. Are you attracting back all these lost skills?

A: They are, they are. I give you one example of the present chief executive of the IDR. He was working with Innovative Associate, formerly known as Ernst & Young. He was an associate and a vice-president but he came back to help us.

The most important thing I believe is that we have to empower the younger generation, the professionals, give them new hope that this is the place to come and seek for greener pastures. Therefore, we have to identify new areas that can accommodate them. For example, in the area of ICT. We have to open up to them and most importantly is that we must facilitate them. The role of the state is to empower them by giving them hope and also to facilitate. We cannot just give them a false impression so we must help them in whatever way we can.

Q: A lot of people say, especially your rivals, say that you follow them; you have given out goodies, grants and all that, to win support.

A: Yes, this is not the first time they raised the issue. I remember when we passed the budget, they called it a “copycat budget.” I have been arguing this many times because if you really look at it, which part of it have we followed them? I can assure you they have been following us all the time. We never argue on good things for the people.

For one example is the ICT programme, they continued because they know it is good for the people. They also know that we have been giving dermasiswa for the people, so when they came in, they improved it just a little bit by increasing it by RM1 million but we have been doing it all this time.

However, I do not want to argue on this because why should we argue on what we can contribute to the people. They say that we have been following them so I ask them – show us.

I can list down all the things that we have done because we have been doing it for more than 50 years and some things are taken for granted. And suddenly when they come in and they announce the waiver for parking summonses, that became a big news for them.

Now, I have been working on issues affecting the people for years but when we solve it, they say that they had done it. And then when I managed to attract big investments, they say that it was from their time. They can lie once but not every time. People are fed up. I do not know why they are behaving that way.

To me, it is not a question of giving out goodies -- what is important is to continue the policy of the BN. And then you have to remember, I also have to listen to the people and find out what they want because we are servicing the people. There are things that have to be addressed immediately. For example, we have to increase assistance for education. And then you know there are many Indians out there who are very poor so what is the best approach? I do not want an ad hoc approach – to patch up here and there. We must find out a more concrete approach to help the people.

For example, the Indian community. I want to ask the PR, have they really helped them? Some of them are very poor, they cannot even afford to send their children to school. So I said, why not we give them a piece of land, say a few thousand acres, and then let them plant oil palm through Yayasan Perak, for example, and the proceeds from there can be kept in a special fund to help the Indians. Hopefully one day, we no longer have Indians who cannot send their children to school.

For the case of the Chinese, there was one policy that the PR argued was a “copycat” one. This involved the giving of 2,500 acres of land to the Chinese independent schools (Suwa). I do not want, when I become the mentri besar, whatever promises made by the PR are stopped just because these are two different governments. I am not going to do that to the people. So I met them (Suwa) and they told me they wanted the land so I said OK. Then they came back and they said they wanted the cash instead because they thought it would be difficult to divide up the land amongst the nine schools. I discussed it in the state executive council meeting and we, the government, finally decided to agree and give them RM3.6 million annually. Finally, they came to another decision. They said one company wants to look after the land and they decided that they wanted the land back so I said OK, I will give you the land back. You see, this is how we handle it.

Similarly for the Sekolah Agama Rakyat, they say they have been helping but how? For us, we know they really need our attention. So I also allocated and since we have a bigger number of Sekolah Agama Rakyat in Perak, it is only fair for me to give another 5,000 acres for them.

In other words, what I am trying to say is that we have to find a permanent solution to things. We do not want to find for the sake of our political convenience, to get the people to support us for the next election and yet at the end of the day, things are only done for the sake of politics. I do not want to be seen as just a mere political leader, playing with the sentiments alone.

Q: If elections were called this week, or this coming month, do you think: 1) Can the BN win the state and 2) Will you still be the mentri besar?

A: (Laughs) Well, the question does not arise at all. If at any time, when the Prime Minister decides to call for the elections, we will be ready. I know they have been arguing and they want us to dissolve the assembly. It is all just political psychological warfare that they are playing with us. They want me to go into their boxing ring, to fight with them. But I do not want to play. We have to be smart as well, we do not want to be carried away or to get pulled into the ring.

The most important thing for us is to serve the people. My commitment is testimony to this and I think, let the people speak up. It is not about now or when, if you do it now (dissolve the assembly) or you do it later, if you do not do the right things for the people or deliver to the people, then at the end of the day, the people will make their own judgement.

So now, they want to dissolve it. I say, why? Because they are the one who started it. They are the ones who started the whole political debacle in Perak. Why suddenly they want us to play to their game? So now they are angry with me because I do not want to play to their game. As simple as that. (Laughs) Let me put it clearly to them, if they think that the BN is scared because we do not have the support of the people, then alright never mind, we will not dissolve. If you say you have the people’s support, then you go and resign your 28 seats. Then we will see if you will get support from the people?

Q: You challenged them to do this?

A: Yes, I challenge them. They have been telling the people, we never tell, I never go around telling the people that I have the support and so on because my main concern is to develop the state, to help the state while I am still the mentri besar. This is my responsibility and this is what I have to do. They keep on going around telling people this and that. If you think you are very popular with the people, and you say we are not, ok never mind, we will not dissolve the assembly and we will not resign our 31 seats. You go, you say are the best, then you go ahead.

Q: But if they resign, their candidates cannot recontest the seats.

A: Oh never mind, because they say they are representing their parties and their parties are very strong. The popular support for them is because of their party and the struggle of the Pakatan Rakyat. So let’s go, go for the 28.

Q: Datuk Seri, do you think that your calm and confident ways are the qualities that attracted Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to make you the mentri besar? You do not really jump at things, you take your time to say the things you want. So what do you think were the qualities that got you the post of mentri besar?

A: (Laughs) I do not know in the first place. All my friends they know that I like to be frank with everyone and I am always the last person to find enemies. That is not my way, despite what people say about me. And then as you all know that they have been writing a lot about me in the blogs and so on but I never react to that because I know at the end of the day, we are all human beings. Furthermore, you are the leader. The leader must be the last person to make any rash decisions, you have to think wisely and ask around first. So these are the things I guess. I thank the leadership for trusting me. I can face Clara and Manimaran and others, because I know we are all human beings. I believe in my conscience and that is important to me.

Q: Recently one Perak assemblyman, (BN-friendly Independent) Behrang assemblyman Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi, said that if the elections are called, the BN can win at least 34 seats. What do you think?

A: Thank you for saying that, especially coming from Jamaluddin. This I cannot reveal because if I do, then it becomes news to the Opposition. We are working closely, we are watching. In fact I am watching not only based on what the people are telling us but mind you, I am also working independently with other groups to seek the people’s opinions about the government. So in other words, we have various feedback. Well, 34... (pauses)

Q: So you agree? That there is a possibility of winning these 34 seats?

A: Well of course, as a politician, as a state liaison chairman (of Perak BN), I have the confidence. And I have that confidence.

Q: You also have information (to support that)? You say you are working closely with other groups to find out who the people support?

A: Oh yes. Independently as well. Because I want to see the background. In order to be objective, you have to get information not only from your circle but you must also open up to the others. I have also engaged some independent view in order to know the position of the government. In order to gain a more meaningful view so the government can learn from there.

Q: How would you rate your BN administration not just in comparison with the PR government but also in comparison with the previous BN governments?

A: How do you rate it? Well, it is difficult for me to answer. You know, Clara. You know me. I think since you have been here, my style is that I do not want to place myself very high in the sky. I think, let the people judge for themselves, I do not want to make any comparison whatsoever even with my previous predecessors in the BN. Probably we all have different ways and styles and they lived in their time and they contributed very significantly during their time. And you know times have changed. Things are different today. Probably I am fated to take the lead during the time of crisis.

Q: You have had a harder task in comparison to the others?

A: Oh yes, indeed that is true.