Khairy: Malaysia would be ‘in tatters’ under Pakatan
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 30 — Malaysia’s economy and administrative system would be left directionless and “in tatters” if Pakatan Rakyat takes over Putrajaya, Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin said today.
Khairy said the federal opposition’s inability to decide on a proper set of administrative laws and a failure to present a shadow Cabinet showed it was not capable of running the country.
Comparatively, Khairy said Barisan Nasional was a coalition that has proven its ability in administration, through selection of Cabinet members from within component party leaders.
Citing PAS’s plans to implement hudud law in Kelantan, Khairy asked whether Malaysians could trust a pact that could not even decide on a uniform set of laws to govern the country.
“Will there be a different set of laws for different states? Will the very definition of criminality change as one crosses state lines?
“Thievery in Kelantan, amputation of the hand. In Kuala Lumpur, jail. In Penang, we’ll wait for what Caliph Lim Guan Eng has to say,” Khairy said during his address at his party’s youth wing assembly here.
“Such is the reality that faces us if we let the opposition take over. The administrative system will be left in disarray, in tatters without direction,” the Umno leader said.
He took a further swipe at DAP’s suggestion to trim the country’s civil service size, saying that there was no reason to do so.
“Other countries do not take into account security officials and educators as part of the civil service, while in Malaysia, these two groups account for more than half of all civil servants.
“As a civil servant, a vote for the opposition is really a vote for your redundancy,” Khairy said.
Pakatan Rakyat has since clarified it will not trim the bloated civil service if it takes over Putrajaya, but will instead focus on making government staff more efficient.
The Umno Youth chief fired repeated salvoes towards PR today, including accusing its leaders of ridiculing BN states in other countries, a specific reference to claims that Lim had made disparaging remarks about Johor while on a trip to Singapore.
“His (the Penang chief minister’s) remarks suggest he had no regard to the impact on the country’s overall investment level and attractiveness.
“It was as if Penang was not part of Malaysia to him,” said the Rembau MP.
PR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has said his coalition was now ready to form the federal government after helming five states following the landmark 2008 election.
He said that if the electoral pact had taken Putrajaya three years ago “we may have been careless” but governing the states it won three years ago provided a “training ground” for the fledgling coalition.
The 2008 general election saw PR make record gains, denying Barisan Nasional (BN) its customary two-thirds majority of Parliament after a record 82 opposition MPs were elected.