MIRI: Today marks Pakatan Harapan (PH) first anniversary winning the 14th general election and as the new government of Malaysia.
To Hafidz, a private sector staff, one year may not be enough time to judge the new government although he also believes many Malaysians want to see PH deliver its election promises instead of making excuses.
“Perhaps the best thing that happened was the new government gave rise to the birth of Sarawak-based Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS).
“I personally feel most Sarawakians are happy for this because now, they can proudly associate with GPS which has turned out to be their best choice to safeguard Sarawak interests, especially the state’s rights as per MA63,” he said.
Sharing similar sentiment was 50-year-old Sawing Bajing who said as the central government PH has to show it is a better government than BN.
“PH is in the fixing process, which is good, but it must also perform. It must perform better than BN. It must be able to offer development allocations better than BN,” he said.
Meanwhile, for a single mother, Ismawati Abdullah, 54, she said she preferred the previous government than PH which, according to her, could not match BN.
“PH made so many promises. It made it sound like it would increase aid to the people, give bigger subsidies, bring down fuel prices, and make life easier for Malaysians. But now everything seems to be the opposite.
“BR1M has been reduced, prices of goods keep increasing and there are no subsidies, no flood aid whatsoever. So, what’s so great with PH? To me, the government fails,” she said.
Ismawati, who operates a food stall here in the city, said last time she received government aid every month because she is a single mother.
“The aid stopped coming as soon as the new government was installed.
“BN was way, way better than this government,” she said.
For Safina Tan, 45, in terms of development, maybe one year is too early to judge the new government.
“But PH talks too much and does so little. That’s the problem with this government,” she said.
