Bumiputera Malaysia

Bumiputera Malaysia

By a Malaysian for his country

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Toll protest, Abdullah blames civil servants, Mahathir blames his ministers

The huge public demonstration to protest against Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's cruel highway toll increments took place last weekend in Petaling Jaya. But the mainstream media in the country dared not publish a single photo of the demonstration as they have been "advised" by someone working at the 4th floor of the Prime Minister's office in Putrajaya.






Public protests against Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's cruel administration

Meanwhile, the sleepy premier is dismayed that while his Islam Hadhari policies have been described as "first class", their implementation still leaves much to be desired because of the poor public delivery system. The number 1 civil servant in the country said, "if everything seems to be all right and yet on the ground there is not enough effort to implement the policies, then the perception is that there might be corruption involved".

And today, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has said that "there is a lack of transparency in deciding the airport charges in Malaysia". It seems the "perception" that the sleepy Abdullah is talking about is not merely a perception after all.

At the same time, former Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad blamed his ministers for the highway toll issue and called for the highway concession agreements to be reviewed and renegotiated. He said, "We did not have very much experience. We didn’t know about growth and reaction from people. Civil servants don’t think of reaction as much as politicians. They think they see a reasonable agreement and they send it to the cabinet and the cabinet okays it. And now we are stuck".