Ramasamy should read Ideas' report card on Harapan manifesto in full

MP SPEAKS | In my speech on June 28 at the launch of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs’ (Ideas) second Projek Pantau report card, I asked the public to continue to remind Pakatan Harapan of our manifesto so that we will continue to feel the pressure to deliver our promises before the next general election.

I also mentioned that one of the most vocal groups of people in reminding the government of our manifesto promises is our Harapan backbenchers through various internal channels. 

I failed to mention that some of our own state assembly representatives are equally vocal in their reminders, albeit through more public channels.

I would like to thank Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy for his latest reminder that it is “not too late to deliver on Harapan’s election promises,” which was published on his Facebook page.

As much as I appreciate Ramasamy’s (photo) reminder, it would have been a more constructive note if he could have systematically gone through the very detailed report card produced by Ideas, which evaluated the progress made by Harapan on 224 sub-promises found in the manifesto, instead of merely responding to a headline in a Malaysiakini article. 

His Facebook note does not do justice to the extensive work done by Ideas, and the fact that the think tank's statement on the ‘unrealistic’ promises found in the manifesto was directed at a small number of promises. 

This includes the target of one million affordable houses in 10 years, and setting the income contingent level of National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loan repayment to start at RM4,000 per month.

In addition, Ramasamy's statement that “more than one year has elapsed since Harapan’s takeover of the federal government but little has been done to implement the election promises made” is simply wrong.

Ideas’ own study shows that 30 percent of the 224 sub-promises have either been implemented or are on track.

The achievements by the one-year-old Harapan government include the “rapid abolition of the GST, significant new support to SMEs, and an ambitious plan to reduce corruption and reform public procurement.”

This led Ideas to conclude that “all in all, the government can be proud of the achievements it has made in its first year.”

This does not mean that the Harapan government can rest on our laurels. 

There is much more work which needs to be done, and many top Harapan leaders, including the prime minister, have iterated our commitment to deliver on our GE14 manifesto promises, either fully, or in some cases, partly.

I have delivered on my promise made during the speech at the Ideas public forum to ensure that each Harapan MP receives a copy of Ideas’ second Projek Pantau report card. 

I trust that many of our backbenchers will use this document as one of the reference points to keep the Harapan government accountable to our manifesto promises.

I hope that others such as Ramasamy can continue to give constructive feedback to the government, so that we can deliver an even better report card to the voters in the next four years prior to GE15.

ONG KIAN MING is Bangi MP and assistant national director for political education for DAP.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.