Pakatan to offer voters new deal to ‘clean up’ Malaysia

PETALING JAYA, Jan 11 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will outline what is effectively its general election manifesto by unveiling plans to improve the civil service and its economic policies if the pact wins federal power, at its national convention this weekend in Kedah.

Calling the plans its “Jingga Deal,” PR representatives said today it will offer the public a glimpse of its policies being planned to ensure more Malaysians get to share in the country’s wealth and resources.
They said PR’s third national convention this weekend will focus on addressing the country’s “prolonged economic and social crises” under the theme “Clean Up Malaysia.”

“We will make our offer of the ‘Jingga Deal’, to show how we will share the nation, the resources and the wealth,” said PAS central committee member Dzulkefly Ahmad, who chairs the committee in charge of four papers that will be tabled at the convention.

The four papers will touch on:

1. Restoring the civil service to one of the world’s best and removing the income gap between top officers and lower-ranked civil servants.

2. Restoring federalism to empower state and local governments in terms of resources and autonomy.

3. Breaking up monopolies, duopolies, cartels and other aspects of cronyism in the country.

4. Giving Felda settlers and their families, which number in the millions, a new deal under the federal land development scheme.

“A prime example of the failure of Barisan Nasional’s (BN) federal government is the plundering of resources from Sabah and Sarawak ever since we formed Malaysia,” PKR vice president N. Surendran added.

DAP vice chairman Tan Kok Wai said the convention was important in strengthening co-operation among the component parties by taking forward previous policy agreements.

The Cheras MP noted that PR’s first convention in 2009 resulted in the 23-page Common Policy Framework while the December 2010 convention produced the Buku Jingga, which fleshed out detailed policies that will be carried out by PR within the first 100 days of taking power.

The Buku Jingga manifesto promises to increase teachers’ monthly allowances by RM500, abolish tolls on highways, and maintain fuel subsidies that have been gradually cut by the current administration.

PAS vice president Datuk Mahfuz Omar also said that the convention will give the public an idea of “our assurances to overcome social injustice.”

“Our theme, Clean Up Malaysia, is based on how unhealthy Malaysia has become due to the prolonged economic and social crises,” he said.

The Pokok Sena MP added that representatives from different segments of society will join in the convention to give their views on the “Jingga Deal” and other plans.

Speakers from Felda, the civil service, NGOs and student bodies are scheduled to take the stage at the convention.

They include Bersih chief Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, Solidariti Mahasiswa Malaysia president Shukri Razab, and former Human Rights Commission vice chairman Tan Sri Simon Sipaun.