More than one year has elapsed since PH’s takeover of the federal government but little has been done to implement the election promises.
These promises were not made in abstraction but in the larger context of the urgent need to wrest power from the decadent and corrupt Barisan Nasional (BN).
Malaysians had waited too long to get rid of the ossified and ineffectual government that sought to rely on racism and religious appeal to ensure its survival.
People were getting tired to the extent they were hungry for change. The answer came in the form of PH as the agency for change.
Political change does not occur in abstraction.
It had to be effected through the medium coalition building, effective campaign and promises to the people.
In this respect, the drafting and launching of the PH manifesto were done on the serious note that the promises made were deliverable.
It was an attempt to convince Malaysians, irrespective of their ethnic or religious origins, that the future needs to be taken seriously.
Thus, the question of the promises as unrealistic by one foreign researcher simply smacks of ignorance, arrogance and totally out of touch with the political reality of the nation in the immediate period before the last general election.
By the way, the PH manifesto is simply not a research document, but a political one.
To call it unrealistic reveals not only the simple-mindedness of researchers but their lack of political understanding.
The other argument that the promises were made in anticipation of not winning the election has to be rejected.
Such an argument basically says that the PH leadership were not honest to the extent the promises were made to get their votes even though winning was not possible.
This is a highly irresponsible and careless one, it gives the impression that false promises were made to dupe the people into voting for PH.
PH emerged victorious even though not expected but laden with the monumental task of promises in front of it.
The financial position of the country in the immediate aftermath has been cited as one of the reasons why promises could not be delivered.
This is a reasonable point of view.
But then, there are so many promises that could be met even without much spending. At least, the PH leadership could have identified these to the extent of providing a time-frame for their implementation.
But nothing has been done to date. We are not sure why.
Many of those who campaigned hard in the last election general election are finding it difficult to explain to supporters why the PH government is silent when it comes to delivering these promises.
Even if promises made are delayed, they understand. But at least the government could provide them with a time-frame for their eventual implementation.
The PH election manifesto is not a joke nor was it intended to mislead the people or made on the basis of some unrealistic considerations. These reasons cannot be accepted. Acceptance of these will render the whole PH government hollow.
Of course, some would argue that the non-delivery on the promises seems to be related to the larger political question of the lack of political will. Why isn’t there a strong will?
Is it because the government seems to be too preoccupied with racial and religious appeal of Umno and PAS? Is it because the civil service seems divided in the loyalty to their new masters in Putrajaya? Or is it because the ministers in the Cabinet are yet to anchor themselves to do serious work or are they waiting for directions from the prime minister himself?
Three-and-a-half years to the next general election is not too far off. The support from Malaysians will be more or less decided on a host of factors including the election promises. If there are no attempts to grapple with the promises in view of their implementation, PH might be in for trouble.
It is not too late, those promises that could be delivered without much spending could be focused on.
P Ramasamy is the Penang deputy chief minister II.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.