PR says being vindicated, urges Najib to relinquish Finance post

Sep 15: Saying a chief executive officer should not also be chief financial officer, Pakatan Rakyat today urged prime minister Najib Razak to give up his Finance portfolio to pave way for better governance.

“Using the corporate analogy, it is not going to happen that a chief executive officer will also be the chief financial officer. So for a prime minister to also be the finance minister is something strange in any part of the world and it is deviates from the principle of good management practices,” the coalition said in a joint statement by PAS's Dzulkefly Ahmad, DAP's Liew Chin Tong and PKR's Sivarasa Rasiah (pics, left).
The statement also reminded Najib of his 'dismal' performance in the past three years in the powerful ministry, which he had taken over from his predecessor Abdullah Badawi following intense pressure.

It said Najib had failed to carry out reforms to bring the nation out of the middle-income economic trap under the New Economic Model (NEM).

“Pakatan Rakyat is also made to understand that Najib is currently struggling on his own to defend his position in the cabinet as well as UMNO,” it added.

The statement said Najib had indulged in "flip-flop decision making" causing losses in the millions of ringgit, such as the failure to use nano technology for oil labelling.

"And the latest, the six percent tax on pre-paid mobile phone charges,” it pointed out, referring to the government's service tax which Telcos recently announced would be imposed on consumers, only to later say the plan was being postponed.

On the state of the economy, the statement said while inflation had soared, workers' income remained stagnant..



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The three leaders also reminded Najib that pressure from Pakatan Rakyat's Orange Book outlining its governance policies had effected some changes by the present government.

This, according to them, includes the public holiday to commemorate the formation of Malaysia on September 16, something which PR had been campaigning for recognition.

“Pakatan Rakyat gives its assurance that it will not discriminate in giving due respect and dignity to all states in the Malaysian Federation under physical decentralisation, as spelt out in the Orange Book (page 31)," said the statement, adding that such a policy also entailed a payment of 20 percent royalty from the profits of petroleum to deserving states so that poverty could be eradicated.

Earlier this evening, Najib, in a speech telecast live on all government-controlled broadcast channels, announced the repeal of the Internal Security Act, in addition to three other such draconian acts which provided for arbitrary detention.

Najib also promised reforms in the issuance of publication licenses by the Home ministry, but stopped short of saying weather this meant that banned political periodicals, such as PKR's Suara Keadilan, would be allowed to resume.
"Finally, after five decades, Najib has admitted that democracy in this country is dysfunctional," Dzulkefly told Harakahdaily in his immediate reaction to Najib's speech tonight.

Sumber : Harakah Daily