Najib boleh dikritik, kata bekas ketua pengarang NST The Malaysian Insider

Penyokong pro kerajaan patut sedar bahawa Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak boleh dikritik akibat keputusan Putrajaya untuk memotong subsidi rakyat hingga menyebabkan kenaikan harga, kata bekas pengarang akhbar yang ada kaitan dengan Umno.

Wartawan veteran, Datuk A Kadir Jasin menerusi tulisan dalam blognya, berkata Najib dan penasihatnya patut ditegur apabila rakyat memberi reaksi terhadap cara Putrajaya mengendalikan ekonomi negara.

“Najib dan penasihatnya ketika pilihan raya umum yang berjanji kepada rakyat bahawa harga tidak akan dinaikkan. Jadi, sekarang siapa yang mungkir janji,” katanya dalam posting terbaru dalam blognya, The Scribe semalam.

Beliau juga mempersoalkan adakah perdana menteri raja berkuasa mutlak sehingga tidak boleh dikritik atau disentuh.

“Atau adakah dia keramat hidup yang bebas daripada segala bentuk kesilapan,” katanya yang turut menjadi pengarang kumpulan New Straits Times ketika pemerintahan Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Sejak September, Putrajaya memperkenalkan beberapa siri kaedah pemotongan kos untuk mengawal defisit bajet yang kronik dan ini termasuk mengurangkan subsidi minyak, pemansuhan subsidi gula, membenarkan peningkatan tarif elektrik dan pengenalan cukai barangan dan perkhidmatan (GST).

Putrajaya juga dikatakan sedang menyemak kadar tol manakala rebat 20% yang ditawarkan kepada pengguna kerap lebuh raya di Lembah Klang dikatakan akan dimansuhkan.

Peningkatan kos barangan dan perkhidmatan juga mencetuskan bantahan pada malam sambutan tahun baru oleh organisasi bukan kerajaan mahasiswa yang menggelarkan diri mereka Turun, sehingga menarik penyertaan lebih daripada 10,000 orang.

Mempertahankan kritikan lantangnya terhadap Najib, Kadir berkata, pengkritiknya yang mendakwa beliau hanya membelasah perdana menteri mengenai pengurusan ekonomi tetapi tidak menawarkan khidmat nasihat dan tunjuk ajar.

Kadir berpendapat pengkritiknya tidak membaca ‘nasihat panjang’ yang diberikan kepada Najib dan kerajaan menerusi blognya dan melalui beberapa tulisannya di tempat lain.

Katanya, beliau mengkritik Putrajaya sejak 2006 ketika Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi menjadi perdana menteri susulan daripada peningkatan drastik harga minyak, gas memasak yang kemudiannya diikuti dengan kenaikan harga barangan asas dan perkhidmatan.

“Saya menulis beberapa rencana mengingatkan kerajaan mengenai kesan buruk tindakan itu dan bagaimana mengurangkan beban pengguna,” kata pemilik Berita Publishing yang menerbitkan majalah Malaysian Business itu.

Beliau berkata, bukan tanggungjawabnya untuk mengajar Putrajaya mengenai pengurusan ekonomi kerana ia adalah bidang kuasa kementerian, agensi kerajaan dan penasihat perdana menteri yang ramai, hebat dan tersohor.

“Tugas saya adalah memberi maklum balas dan membuat kritikan. Malangnya ada pihak menganggap kritikan sebagai penentangannya. Inilah akibatnya apabila masyarakat tidak berfikiran kritis ditambah pula oleh sikap partisan yang melampau,” katanya.

Kadir berkata, beliau berulang-kali mengatakan bahawa subsidi yang tidak lestari (unsustainable), mengherotbenyotkan (distort) ekonomi dan menyebabkan pergantungan terhadap kerajaan.

“Tetapi saya mempertikaikan cara kerajaan, khasnya pada zaman Abdullah dan Najib menguruskan subsidi, memantau dan mengawal kenaikan harga, mengagihkan penjimatan subsidi dan mengurangkan pembaziran sumber kewangan negara,” katanya. – 8 Januari, 2014.

Najib is not above criticism, says former NST chief editor

Pro-government supporters should realise that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is not above criticism for Putrajaya’s cost-cutting measures which had resulted in price hikes, says a former editor of an Umno-linked newspaper.

Veteran journalist Datuk A. Kadir Jasin (pic) wrote that Najib and his advisers were not above criticism when the public react to Putrajaya's way of managing the national economy.

"It was Najib and his advisers during the general election who promised the people that prices will not be raised. So, who is going back on their word?" he asked in a posting in his The Scribe blog yesterday.

He also questioned whether the prime minister was an absolute monarch who could not be criticised or questioned.

"Or is he a living saint who is free from any kind of slip-ups?” asked Kadir, who was the group editor-in-chief of the New Straits Times when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the prime minister.

Since September, Putrajaya has introduced a series of cost-cutting measures to rein in a chronic budget deficit which includes a reduction of fuel subsidies, removal of subsidy for sugar, allowed an increase in power tariffs and confirmed the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST).

Putrajaya is also mulling a revision of toll rates while the 20% rebate offered to frequent users of tolled roads in the Klang Valley may be scrapped.

The increasing cost of goods and services had also triggered a protest on New Year's Eve by an undergraduate non-governmental organisation, Turun, which attracted more than 10,000 people.

In defending his strident criticism of Najib, the veteran journalist also rebuked his critics who had claimed that he only lambasted the prime minister on “economic management but did not offer advice and pointers”.

Kadir felt his critics did not read his long "advice" to Najib and his government through his blog and also through his writings elsewhere.

He said he had been critical of Putrajaya since 2006 when Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was the prime minister following drastic hike in the price of fuel and cooking gas which resulted in the price increase of essential items and services.

"I had written several articles then to remind the government on the implication and ways to reduce the burden of consumers," said Kadir, who owns Berita Publishing which produces the Malaysian Business magazine.

He added it was not his responsibility to teach Putrajaya economic management for that was the responsibility of ministries, government agencies and the advisers of the prime minister who were learned.

"My job is to offer feedback. However, there are those who equate that to going against the establishment. This is the result of a society who are not critical and extremely partisan," he said.

Kadir also said that he had repeatedly stated that subsidy was unsustainable, distorted the market and led to the people to rely heavily on the government.

"But I only questioned the way the government, especially under Abdullah dan Najib, managed the subsidy, price control, distribution of savings from the subsidy and ways to reduce financial wastage," he added. – January 8, 2014.