Happy New Year 2011: And a word from our Prime Minister

Wishing all readers of Another Brick in the Wall a happy new year. May the year 2011 be a year better than the previous.

Before a word from our Prime Minister, here is a word for our Prime Minister ...

When we first expressed to you the need to address the problem of corruption, it took you a whole year before serious charges are being taken to court.

It took too long.

By the time it is done today, some segment of the public are not convince and believed the recent charges as mere show. They accused it as politicking to prepare for the general election. They are not yet convince we are serious in combating corruption.

True, they are merely a segment. But to win the next general election, we must regain every inch lost and gain new inches of ground.

It is commonly known that you calculate your decisions and by the time you decide it is well thought out.

But to combat corruption does not require any deep thinking. That delay is a lost opportunity to show you are serious about corruption in the party and government. You are seen as procrastinating and wild association and accusation arise from the delay.

Within one year, many could be achieved and sceptics could be turned around. One year later and we hardly gain any ground on this.

In UMNO, you have yet to make corruption cost. The video evidence against Khairy remains hidden permanently.

There is an urgent need for you to be more decisive, swift and equally stern in matters of critical and strategic importance. We - we is emphasised because we are one team - can't afford to lose precious time and ground like in the corruption issues.

Your decisiveness, swiftness and seriousness is also needed to address the problem of declining competence in Cabinet, and top echelon in Government, Government-linked Companies and UMNO.

The various institutions suffer image problem because of personality at the top is of questionable integrity and competence.

There is also a general lack of sensitivity to the plight and woes of the common people and the Bumiputera majority by your policy makers, implementers and trustees.

If not address, these problems will erode further confidence in you and the party.

The Merdeka Survey reported a 72% public confidence for you but our advise to you is to never believe their easily manipulated survey.

Remember that Tun Abdullah failed miserably when he is at 68% rating in 2008. During the reformasi era, the confidence level for Tun Dr Mahathir was in the high 90 percentile, yet BN was dented. At 72% or more by 4% than Pak Lah, you are not in comfortable territory.

Once voters begin to try to vote opposition, that is a permanent lost of support for BN. It means they stop being a loyal voter of BN and no more blindly support BN. It is difficult to regain them back to the fold. If they do vote back, they are more critical and less tolerable to mistakes, inefficiencies, and indiscretions.

Do not procrastinate any further, you need to address the problem of incompetence by reshuffling your cabinet YESTERDAY and HAD removed almost half of the expired goods.

Some are incompetent, some have attitude of arrogance, some are trojan horses from past administration and in collusion with opposition, and some are liabilities to the party re-election effort.

Rid of them or otherwise, the voters will rid you.

And a word from our Prime Minister ...

PM Najib urges Malaysians to build a better future

New Straits Times
December 31, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak today urged all Malaysians to fulfil their responsibility in building a better future for the coming generations and place the country in its rightful position.

Najib, in his 2011 New Year message, said the government's plans and programmes would not be successful without the support and cooperation of the people.

"Let's not be satisfied and just sit back to be mere critics. Let's mould a better future for the coming generations.

"The power to build lies in the hands of the people. Fulfil this responsibility as best as you can," he said.

Najib reminded the present generation not to gamble away the future of the coming generations by making wrong decisions.

"This is not the time to experiment, but a time to renew and strengthen the trust in what has been proven to be effective," he said.

The prime minister said the government always adopted full responsibility in the management of the country, in particular the economy.

"As a government sensitive to the pulse of the people, we will not at all neglect the people's interests by making a promise or a decision which seems to be popular but is actually to the detriment of the interests of everyone," he said.

He said any government which promised or formulated popular but irresponsible policies would gain recognition or support in the short term, but in the long term it would be the people who would suffer.

"Learning from mistakes, throughout 2010, we built a strong foundation to ensure that the nation's potentials and resources can be stimulated and mobilised towards achieving the national vision," he said.

He identified the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) along with the six National Key Result Areas (NKRA) and the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) with the 12 National Key Economic Areas (NKEA) as the basis of the New Economic Model, the 10th Malaysia Plan and Budget 2011, which served as a comprehensive roadmap to raise the living standard and quality of life of the people to a higher level.

"All this while, the government, which was given the mandate, has striven with sincerity to meet the people's needs and national progress to the best of its ability.

"Unfortunately, some quarters have arbitrarily accused the government of being inclined to implement specific projects, particularly mega projects. Such accusations are not true at all," he said.

Some people, especially the opposition, had criticised the construction of several projects including the North-South Expressway, the Petronas Twin Towers and the Penang Bridge, he said, adding that they were now too embarrassed to admit their mistake because these projects had brought much benefit to the people.

"The question is if their opinions have proven to be wrong in such major matters, how can the people possibly trust any of their promises?" he said, adding that the opposition's proposed 100-day reform announced recently would only raise expenditure as it did not consider the realities of the national revenue and sources of funds.

Saying he hoped that the people would be able to make their own evaluation, Najib said the government had all along focused on the objective of ensuring sustainable economic growth.

This was because a boost in national wealth would provide for a rise in expenditure and enable the implementation of social justice, he said.

"It is directly proportional, meaning an increase in government revenue will result in a rise in expenditure for the people's well-being," he said and urged the people regardless of race and religion to heed the call to strive for the pinnacle of success. - BERNAMA

Happy new year to you sir, Dato Najib.