BN perlu berubah, kurangkan beban rakyat atau tewas pilihan raya The Malaysian Insider

Datuk A Kadir Jasin memberi amaran kepada Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak agar beliau membantu mengurangkan kos sara hidup yang ditanggung rakyat atau mengundur diri jika Barisan Nasional (BN) berhasrat untuk memenangi pilihan raya akan datang.

Bekas Ketua Pengarang Kumpulan New Straits Times itu berkata, beliau diajukan soalan mengenai kepimpinan Najib dan masa hadapannya daripada ahli Umno dan seteru politik berikutan rungutan rakyat dengan kenaikan harga barang dan pemotongan subsidi.

"Satu PM perlu berubah dan melakukan perkara yang betul untuk mengurangkan beban rakyat," katanya dipetik daripada laman blog miliknya, The Scribe.

"Dua, beliau perlu ditukar jika enggan berubah, dan ketiga, tiada yang berubah, dan BN akan tewas PRU akan datang," katanya.

Veteran Umno menyuarakan kebimbangan mereka terhadap program rasionalisasi subsidi Najib dalam perbelanjaan awam untuk memastikan Malaysia mendapat rating positif dalam agensi rating antarabangsa.

Menteri Besar Kedah, Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir turut memberi amaran sebelum ini, bahawa polisi BN akan memberi kesan terhadap peluang BN dalam pilihan raya akan datang yang dijangka pada 2018.

Bekas Menteri Kewangan, Tun Daim Zainuddin, berkata Putrajaya perlu mengambil langkah untuk berubah atau tewas dalam pilihan raya.

BN tewas tujuh lagi kerusi Parlimen dalam Pilihan Raya Umum 2013 dengan memperolehi hanya 133 kerusi, berbanding Pakatan Rakyyat (PR) yang menambah sehingga 89 kerusi.

PR merampas majoriti dua pertiga BN di Parlimen dalam Pilihan Raya Umum 2008 apabila memperolehi 82 daripada 222 kerusi Parlimen.

Kadir berkata, melalui pertemuannya dengan pekerja syarikat berkaitan kerajaan dan pemimpin BN, tindakan Najib yang lebih gemar membisu itu menimbulkan kerisauan, terutama dengan isu kalimah Allah yang sedang hangat diperkatakan di seluruh negara.

"Jika beliau percaya tindakannya membisu (kecuali untuk bertenang dan menunggu keputusan kes mahkamah) akan melenyapkan isu, beliau silap," katanya.

Katanya, tindakan Najib "mengambil jalan selamat" tidak akan berjaya dan Najib perlu meninggalkannya.

Beliau berkata, Najib juga kelihatan seperti hilang sentuhan apabila rakyat tidak lagi "sensitif" dengan langkah Putrajaya merasionalisasikan subsidi dalam tempoh singkat berbanding melakukannya secara berperingkat untuk membolehkan pengguna menanganinya.

Katanya, ia tidak akan membantu kerajaan apabila tugas penjelasan dilakukan dengan teruk dan subsidi tidak sesuai untuk jangka masa panjang.

"Kami melakukannya dan rakyat faham. Namun mengumpulkannya sekali gus pada penghujung tahun ketika rakyat memerlukan keperluan yang tinggi untuk anak kembali ke sekolah, itu tidak sensitif," katanya.

Bagaimanapun, katanya, ekonomi tidak terlalu teruk.

Kadir berkata, kerisauannya ialah kadar pengangguran yang tinggi dalam kalangan mahasiswa Bumiputera dengan kadar 51,000 iaitu peningkatan sehingga 30% sejak Najib menjadi perdana menteri pada 2009.

"Kuota Bumiputera dalam ekonomi terlalu kecil untuk masyarakat Bumiputera yang membentuk lebih 60% populasi dan kita juga antara yang termiskin.

"Syarikat berkaitan kerajaan dan syarikat pelaburan tidak cukup untuk menampung populasi Bumiputera," katanya.

Berdasarkan prestasi Najib, Kadir turut mempersoalkan komitmen pemimpin berkenaan dan Kabinetnya, terutama ketika berhadapan dengan krisis.

"Saya dimaklumkan menteri yang kekal terpaksa menjaga beberapa portfolio. Seorang perlu bertanggungjawab lebih daripada 10 kementerian.

"Boleh tidak kalau mereka tidak melakukan seperti itu lagi? Atau mereka tidak kisah,” katanya. – 22 Januari, 2014.

BN must change, ease people’s hardship or lose next polls, veteran editor warns

Veteran newspaperman Datuk A Kadir Jasin (pic) warned today that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak should either ease the people's hardship, or step down if Barisan Nasional (BN) is to win the next general election.

The former New Straits Times group editor related today that he was asked about Najib's leadership and his future, a question that Umno members and his political foes are asking as people grumble about price hikes and subsidy cuts.

"One is for the PM to change and do the right thing to ease the hardship of the people," Kadir wrote in his popular blog, The Scribe, early today.

"Two, for him to be removed if he does not change and three, he remains, nothing changes and the BN faces the risk of being thrown out at the next GE," he added.

Veteran Umno members have voiced their concern over Najib's subsidy cuts to rein in public expenditure and ensure Malaysia gets positive ratings from global ratings agencies.

Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir warned over the weekend that the policies would affect BN's chances in the next election, due in 2018. Former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin also said Putrajaya must make changes or risk more losses in the next polls.

BN lost a further seven federal seats in General Election 2013, gaining only 133 seats against the 89 won by Pakatan Rakyat. The opposition pact broke BN's customary two-thirds parliamentary super majority in the 2008 election by winning 82 seats then.

Moreover, BN had lost the majority vote for the first time in the nation’s 56-year history. Surveys by research firms have shown that BN’s popularity is waning from the economic reforms it conducted after failing to gain the people’s support.

Kadir said that through his meetings with employees of government-linked firms and BN leaders, it was “unanimous that the apparent inaction of the prime minister and his rather inelegant silence are a cause for concern”.

More so now with the Allah debate heated up across the country.

“If he believes that his inaction and silence (except to appeal for calm and wait for court decision) will make the issue go away, he is dead wrong,” said Kadir.

Calling Najib’s infamous tactic of “playing safe”, Kadir said that the manoeuvre no longer works and that Najib “should abandon it and start taking position in order to serve the people”.

Kadir also said that Najib seems to be out of touch with the people with the “insensitive” move to bundle all of Putrajaya’s subsidy rationalisation efforts in such a short period of time instead of doing away with subsidies gradually, allowing consumers the time to adjust.

It did not help that the government did a bad job at explaining to people that subsidies are not sustainable in the long run, he added.

“We did this in the past and the people understood. But lumping them together at the end and the beginning of the year, when the rakyat needed money for their children’s schooling, is insensitive,” he said.

But the economy is not in an altogether bad shape, said Kadir. Economists had told the veteran newsman that the Malaysian economy was in “autopilot” mode and at the current growth rate, it “does not require a lot of government interference”.

What remains to be a concern to Kadir, however, is the high unemployment rate among Bumiputera graduates which stands at 51,000 now – an increase of 30% since Najib took office in 2009.

“The Bumiputera portion of the economy is too small to support the Bumiputeras who make up over 60% of the population and who are also the poorest,” Kadir said.

“The government-linked companies and investment companies are not big enough to support the Bumiputera population,” he said.

But to raise the Bumiputra’s economy requires finesse as Kadir notes that Najib’s plan to “empower the Bumiputera economy might not work unless done inclusively within the larger national economy”.

Based on Najib’s performance, Kadir questioned the leader and his cabinet’s commitment to the people, especially in crises.

“As for me, I am totally disgusted that almost half of cabinet members were abroad during the year-end, when thousands were flooded out of their homes.

“I was told that those ministers who stayed back had to become caretakers of multiple portfolios. One had to be answerable to more than 10 ministries at a time. No wonder the Prime Minister’s Office was so secretive about the PM’s whereabouts,” he said.

“Can they please not do this again? Or do they just not care?” – January 22, 2014.