by Lim Guan Eng

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak sounds confident of sweeping all states in leading BN to 14-0 victory but yet still dare not call for elections. Clearly he knows that Pakatan Rakyat has succeeded in putting across to the public that a Barisan Nasional government would lead to what I describe as the 5Ds of Deficits, Debts, Deceits, Dictatorship and brain Drain of BN.

However I would be the first to admit that telling the public that BN represents 5Ds is not enough. What is the solution? PR’s biggest hurdle is to convince the rakyat that PR can end the BN’s 5Ds. PR believes that ending corruption will remove and end 5Ds.

Dictatorship

Najib has attacked Pakatan Rakyat, allegedly for encouraging a wrong culture of breaking promises, being ungrateful and not paying our debts. Actually it is BN that have been breaking their promises of being fair to minority races by persecuting and hounding Bersih co-Chair Datuk Ambiga Sreevenasan at her home with beef burger stalls, butt dance by army veterans and even that she be hanged for treason against the King. Ambiga is an easy target because she is a Hindu, Indian and a woman.

Najib wants the people to be grateful to BN, when it is political parties such as BN that should always be grateful to the people for voting them. Further Najib is not qualified to talk about not paying their debts when billion of ringgit in loans taken by UMNO cronies from local banks in financial scandals have never been paid. Why so special for UMNO cronies but not for the ordinary rakyat?

Deceits, Brain Drain and Deficits

At present corruption has deteriorated with Transparency International ranking Malaysia at No. 60 in the Corruption Perception Index last year compared to No. 37 in 2003.

Instead of giving out loans to farmers who breed cows, the family of a Minister who has never reared a cow is given RM250 million loan, which is misused to buy condos. We can see some of the worst excesses in Sarawak where wealth controlled by families of state government leaders are openly flaunted.

Clearly rampant corruption can only be permitted by BN’s deceit and dictatorial powers which will lead to an even larger brain drain. Since Merdeka in 1957, more than 2 million Malaysians have left the country. The recent change in Australian work visa policy that allows Australian graduates to stay back in Australia for 2 – 4 years will only accelerate the brain drain.

BN’s recent RM13.8 billion 2012 supplementary budget will add on to the projected RM 45.9 billion projected deficit in the 2012 budget, resulting in a total deficit of RM 59.7 billion, the highest in Malaysian history.

The fiscal irresponsibility of the BN government is proven by the fact that the additional funds will be spent on the extra RM1.5 million allocation to BN MPs from this supplementary budget while non-BN MPs including those from Pakatan Rakyat will be given nothing.

Debts

As of 31 March 2012, government debt stood at RM470 billion. If we include the expected deficit from the 2012 budget, our government debt will easily increase to beyond RM500 billion by the end of the 2012. And this does not even include the worrying increase in the contingent liabilities that are not officially on the books amounting to nearly RM110 billion.

If contingent liabilities are added to official government debt, our debt would increase to more than RM600 billion or RM21,500 each to be paid by the 28 million Malaysians!

The last time this country ran a budget surplus was in 1997 when Anwar Ibrahim was the Deputy Prime Prime Minister. Since 1997, we have experienced 15 consecutive years of budget deficits, which is why we want Anwar as the new Prime Minister to turnaround the deficit budget into a surplus budget.

Our government debt has increased by 5 times from RM89 billion in 1997 to RM470 billion as at March 2012 as compared to the increase in GDP by only threefold.

Success of PR state governments

In contrast to BN’s dismal financial performance, PR state governments have recorded surplus after surplus every year and even managed to reduce our debts sustainably.

Penang reduced our debts by a whopping 95% or RM600 million from RM630 million at 8 March 2008 to only RM30 million by end 2011. All this was achieved not by BN’s deceit but by straight talking of running a clean government based on CAT governance of competency, accountability and transparency.

Clearly the system of open competitive tenders, disclosure of government contracts with the private sector, public declaration of assets certified by an international accounting firm and the passing of a Freedom of Information Act works in combating corruption. PR states like Penang have proven that a clean and good government can end 5Ds. – the Rocket