Government capable of providing development as the country is not a failed nation 
KUALA SELANGOR, May 2 (Bernama) -- The capability of the federal government in providing development to the people proves that the country is not a failed or bankrupt nation, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
He said the capability was also strengthened by the latest World Economic Forum report which had placed Malaysia as the 23rd most competitive country in the world.
"This is the uniqueness of Malaysia, if Malaysia were a failed or bankrupt nation as alleged by the opposition, certainly we won't be in a position (to provide development), don't talk about building hospitals, don't talk about building health clinics, to repair playing fields too we cannot afford.
"As a government, this is our responsibility," he said when making a working visit to the Kuala Selangor Parliamentary constituency at Sekolah Kebangsaan Puncak Alam (2), here today.
Also present were Selangor Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Tan Sri Noh Omar, BN candidate for the Kuala Selangor Parliamentary constituency Datuk Seri Dr Irmohizam Ibrahim, the BN candidate for the State Legislative Assembly seat (DUN) for Jeram, Zahar Azlan Arifin and BN candidate DUN Ijok, K. Parthiban.
Addressing about 500 members of the teaching fraternity in the Kuala Selangor Parliamentary constituency, the prime minister said that as the head of government, he had to table a report card on the performance on all the initiatives and programmes that had been implemented by the government for the people.
Najib said the performance report was a yardstick for the development brought by the BN government based on the inclusive policies covering every group of the society whether they were in the rural or urban areas.
The prime minister also drew the attention of those present by sharing the privileges received by the people when getting health services whether at the government clinics or hospitals where they only had to pay a minimal price compared to the charges paid at the private hospitals or clinics.
Last week, I officially opened the National Cancer Institute at Putrajaya and there was a machine costing RM22 million where only two hospitals in the country had the model which can detect cancer cells and perform radiotherapy without affecting other healthy cells.
When asked how much a patient had to pay to use the machine, the institute's director said those in the third class only had to pay RM12, second class RM200 and first class RM400 compared to the RM40,000 that the patient had to pay at private hospitals.
"Similarly in the field of education, substantial subsidy was given by the government, for every primary school pupil, we had to subsidise RM8,300 meaning that the government bears all the fees and expenses including salaries for the teachers and other expenses. For the secondary schools, the government subsidy is almost RM9,000 while at the university level, 90 per cent of the fees were borne by the government. The government has done a lot," he said.
Meanwhile, the prime minister said in order to move ahead, there must be uniformity between the federal and state governments because many things would be stalled if there was no understanding especially if the state government was administered by a party other than the BN.
Citing the example in Selangor, Najib said the burden borne by the people in the state such as water had yet to be resolved because the state government administered by the opposition pact had 'other thoughts'.
"I observe that the water problem in Selangor is still not resolved whereas the federal government had spent RM3.65 billion to build the Langat 2 Water Treatment Plant, why? Because the state government wanted to do other things, Their plan to take over Splash (Syarikat Pengeluar Air Sungai Selangor) has not even been resolved to the extent that there are talks that 'PKR leaders get the vote, but the people get the pail."
"So, when I tabled the BN manifesto for GE14 (14th Genertal Election) if the BN wins back Selangor, we will resolve the water problem. Instead, before the problem is resolved, various taxes have been raised to the extent that some people have complained to me, the charge to begin a housing project has been raised...this will push up the price of houses. Again we see that all the pledges made by the opposition are not met," said Najib who is also BN chairman.
In this regard, the people had the opportunity to correct the situation by thinking about the party that could offer a better future which is no other than the BN.
He also urged the people not to be influenced by the excessive slanders hurled by the opposition against the BN government which tarnished its image in the social media.
"If accessing the Internet, please check (the facts) because most of the information spread are slanders, some are merely stating the opinion of the writers, they may not necessarily be the truth. Our choice for example in Kuala Selangor is Irmohizam, Cikgu Azahar (candidate for Jeram State Assembly seat) who will certainly struggle for education while Parthiban will continue to struggle for Ijok."
"I also want to inform that a teaching hospital is already being planned by the government and will be implemented in the next five years and a new PPD (District Education Office) will also be implemented for Kuala Selangor," he said.
Concluding his speech, Najib urged the people to continue to give their mandate to him to lead the nation for another five years to enable him to implement more major agenda for the country which were already in the plan.
"We want to take the nation towards TN50 (National Transformation 2050), we have become the 23rd most competitive nation in the world and the chance of becoming the top 20 nations is better than the other countries."
"We just want the mandate, if we have a strong government we will continue to surge ahead as a country that commands respect," he added.
-- BERNAMA
