HOW TRUE THE PM’S 'TRANSPARENCY'

PRIME Minister Datuk Seri Najib stressed on the importance of transparency in government administration in his first cabinet meeting. Why only now that the PM is talking about it but in the absence of creditability and accountability principles.

It is not right that the PM still thinks that the opposition has exploited and blown out of proportion the idea regardless of whether it was real or mere perception.

If the PM wants to 'copy or cut and paste' the idea, it is unfair to criticize the opposition. The other thing is when he wants to copy, it is better to copy everything than to have 'half baked' ideas.

When talking about transparency, Najib should first start with the petroleum royalty for Sabah and Sarawak; Terengganu and Kelantan.

PM Najib must propose the amendment to the Petroleum Development Act 1974 to ensure transparency, accountability and creditability on our precious petroleum income, on its unknown expenses and so on.

We want everything to be transparent like on the actual production, sales and income figures for the computation of the 5% oil royalty for Sabah and Sarawak, other percentages for Terengganu and Kelantan, etc. PM Najib must start to get really serious and come out with a do on transparency instead of just telling his cabinet to be “Transparent”.

Without creditability and accountability, transparency in itself would be like the PM has no original ideas – just follow what the opposition say in a small part. May be he should consult Lim Kit Siang or Lim Guan Eng, so that he can come up ideas with some originality.

Now that the 13th General Election has passed and the people of Malaysia have given their mandate, we have to move on to see how serious the Najib administration is in its transparency ideas – remember the idea is short of the two, creditability and accountability.

The people of Penang and Selangor have given full marks for Lim Guan Eng and Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim by extending two-third majority to the two states. So, does Najib want to learn something than to criticize the PR granted that he was the Election Director of Selangor to win back the state for BN? He failed miserably for Selangor in his report cards and he fared worse than Badawi overall in 2008.

It is only now that he wants the members of the government to respond faster and more assertively on any issue raised by the opposition. Well and good, if he is really serious about making his “promises fulfilled” this time around.

He must not forget that Sabah and Sarawak are twenty years behind West Malaysia in terms of progress and development. His giving 6 each full Ministers for Sabah and Sarawak is not yet the answers to all of East Malaysian’s woes and problems.

If the East Malaysian are not happy with Najib and be contented with the 12 full Minister posts, the 47 elected BN East Malaysian MPs can always turn and join force with Pakatan Rakyat to realize a new government and to secure the 20% oil royalty along with other full benefits for the two East Malaysian states. This will be a better deal for the East Malaysian.

The people of Sabah and Sarawak want to see progress and development. What have not been fulfilled in the past as planned should be made good since BN and Najib have somehow won the 13th General Election. It is now time for Najib to show that he is really serious in his promises to the Sabahans that progress and development must take precedence.