By Lim Kit Siang, MP for Gelang Patah

The Prime Minister Najib Razak should visit Johor Bahru to explain the reasons why he had broken two solemn EDL (Eastern Dispersal Link) pledges to the people of Johor in 2002 – “No toll charges for those who don’t use EDL” and “No toll on EDL”.

Najib made the first pledge of “No toll charges for those who don’t use the EDL” at the 10,000-People 1Malaysia Dinner in Johor Bahru on March 9, 2012 which was also attended by the then Johor Mentri Besar, Abdul Ghani Othman, and then MCA President Chua Soi Lek and the then Gerakan President Dr. Koh Tsu Koon.

Najib said that the matter was discussed at a recent meeting of the National Economic Consultative Council which was attended by representatives from the Johor state government.

Najib made the second pledge of “No toll on EDL” six months later in Parliament in September 2012.

As Prime Minister of a government whose motto and slogan is “People’s First, Performance Now”, Najib cannot take his public pledges lightly and must go out of his way to explain and justify flagrant breaches of his public pledges.

So far, Najib has kept silent on his breaches of “No toll charges for those who don’t use EDL” and “No toll on EDL” pledges, which have both been violated since August 1 with the sudden imposition of 480% causeway toll hikes, causing hardships to the causeway commuters as well as adversely affecting business and economy in southern Johor.

Has Najib no explanation or justification whatsoever for his breaches of his two pledges on the EDL to the people of Johor in 2012, and his motto and slogan of “People First, Performance Now” is just an empty and hollow one?

Is Najib going to be known as a Prime Minister whose public pledges cannot be believed or trusted like his two broken EDL pledges?

It is astounding that although four of the six MPs in Johor Bahru region come from the Barisan Nasional, even BN MPs and State Assemblymen had not been consulted before the breaches of Najib’s two EDL pledges.

Until Najib can visit Johor Baru to give convincing and acceptable explanation and justification for his breaches of two Prime Ministerial pledges on EDL, he should immediately suspend and defer implementation of the astronomical causeway toll hike increases.