'Penang govt need to be more innovative'

By Athi Shankar - Free Malaysia Today

GOERGE TOWN: The current Pakatan Rakyat state government has not made much of a difference in its administration of Penang after two-and-a half years in power, said local political observers today.
Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) lecturer Sivamurugan Pandian, election watchdog Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections (Mafrel) coordinator BK Ong and Hindu Rights Action Force advisor N Ganesan think that the Penang government need to be more innovative and implement pro-active people-centric policies to change their perceptions.

They think Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng's administration had been keen to implement only popular schemes, not permanent long term policies, to win over the people. Piece meal and quick fix solutions on pressing issues was simply not sufficient.

"The Pakatan government must come up with fresher, better policies to fulfil growing demands of people and show it is different from the BN," they said.

Revealing his mid-term review on the performance of Pakatan, associate professor Sivamurugan said the current government, with minor adjustments, had copied and continued the previous policies.

He said the open tender policy and the ceasing of temple demolitions may have made some difference but it has failed to execute policies to upgrade the living standards of the poor, especially Indians and Malays, like providing comfortable homes and, creating business and job opportunities for them.

He said the state government had also failed to implement a reliable, efficient and affordable public transport system, which would cut living cost of Penangites and the past and present situations on flooding, crime rates, cleanliness and hill slope developments have not improved much.

"If one were to notice, the state government had been fast in approving mega housing projects, which would not help those in lower income group, who are pre-dominantly Malays and Indians," said the USM deputy dean of School of Social Sciences.

He said although the Pakatan government remained more popular than BN, the popularity though had been more ethnic orientated.

"Pakatan government is popular among Chinese but not among the Malays and Indians, especially those in lower and middle income bracket," he said.

He warned that while Chinese support for Pakatan has remained steady, the Malay and Indian backing was surely shifting.

"Most of them are fence-sitters now,"he said, predicting a backlash from these voters against Pakatan in the next polls.

Honeymoon period will over
Echoing similar views, Ong argued that Pakatan remained popular generally due to people's abhorrence for Umno and BN.

"The main satisfaction among Penangites is that Umno does not dominate the state administration. Moreover, Pakatan is not linked yet with corruption of power," he said.

Thus, so long as the honeymoon period lasts, he said Pakatan could still blame everything on past BN rule or the current federal government for all the shortcomings in its governance.

He predicted that it would take several more years before the anti-Umno and anti-BN sentiments begin to dissipate.

"But over a longer term, people will want to see some concrete results from Pakatan. They will demand solutions to the economic stagnation, bad traffic situation and rampant corruption in civil service," said Ong, who is also the Malaysian Voters Union coordinator.

He, however, credited the Pakatan administration for tidying up the financial mess left over from the previous state government, government-link companies and local councils.

He also commended the state government's measures to cut down over-priced projects, implement open tender policies and encourage direct negotiation of tenders.

The effectiveness of open tender policies was far more limited than the public perception. "Majority of these tenders are governed by stringent federal rules and go to class F contractors, which some say are dominated almost 90 per cent by Umno division and branch leaders," he said.

He said the state government's financial measures can help cushion its short term financial needs. But for long term, he said Penang must use its international advantage to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) and nurture home grown enterprises.

Despite the administration's frequent changes of economic advisers with international credentials, Ong lamented that no major leap had been made in FDIs or growth of innovative local enterprises in both manufacturing and services sectors.

If this continues, he cautioned that Penang's brain drain would escalate while the state's major revenue earners like manufacturing and tourism sectors would suffer.

He criticised the state's RM100 annual gift to each senior citizen over 60 as minuscule compared with the federal welfare cash of RM300 per month for a hard core poor family.

"The state government emphasised on the payment rather than its actual benefit to the recipients. What can a hardcore poor do with RM100 a year anyway?" asked Ong.

He also took a swipe at the action taken to flush out the homeless from the five-foot paths in George Town despite objections from NGOs, which have worked overtime to provide aid to the homeless.

"The state government is also dragging its feet in restoring the local government elections despite popular support and demand for it," said the social activist.

Piece-meal handouts

Ganesan meanwhile said both the past and present governments have only been representing the business community, not the working class.

He said allegations of corruption, lack of responsiveness and transparency were mounting despite the chief minister projecting a public image as an "anti-graft crusader.”

Despite claiming to be a multi racial governance, he said Lim's administration has not shown anything significant in terms of policies and action plans to close the political and socio-economic gap between different ethnic groups in the state.

He also said the DAP-led state government has yet to reveal any vision on Penang's future direction in political and socio-economic development.

He said currently the DAP development vision was no different than the previous Umno version, that is to execute policies to safeguard the developers' rights, interests and benefits.

“Lim has just wiped out the last remaining Indian 200-year-old traditional village Kampung Buah Pala,” he said.

“The state government would hand out a piece-meal gift, such as a land to a school, but would trumpet it as if the whole community had benefited.

“The only difference is Pakatan has been crude while BN was treacherous,” summed up the Hindraf advisor.