SHAH ALAM, 15 May: The Penang Malay problem is now a ‘heritage’ failed to be properly addressed by the previous BN administration.
Penang Hill Member of Parliament, Zairil Khir Johari said that the Penang State Government led by DAP is constantly faced with accusations from BN for allegedly marginalising the Malay community.
The fact is that it is a propaganda of Umno-BN controlled media that plays the sentiment by accusing Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders of not protecting the welfare of Malays.
An example is the incident of demolishing 20 stalls that violated the law which actually only involved four stalls owned by Malays but it was bandied about in the media to seem like all Malay stalls were demolished.
“There are cases where Chinese-owned stalls became Malay-owned stalls in the media. Meanwhile it is the Pakatan Rakyat Government which continues to safeguard Malay Traditional Villages. During the five-year rule of Pakatan Rakyat, no Malay homes were demolished,” he said.
He said this when he was a panel member at the Wacana Sinar 20th Series discourse titled ‘Post GE-13: Where is the Malay Political Orientation’ here today.
According to him, the implementation of an open tender system creates a transparent and corruption-free implementation of projects through the e-tender and e-procurement system which is profitable to Bumiputera contractors.
“When we have a clean government, there would be a clean administration. After five years since the implementation of the open tender system, nearly 80 percent of contracts were won by Bumiputera contractors.
“Foreign investment has also increased. Currently, RM36 billion in foreign investments have been acquired in five years compared to RM18 billion by the previous government,” he said.
The discourse this time also highlighted the Umno Supreme Council member, Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah and Kuala Terengganu Member of Parliament, Raja Datuk Kamarul Bahrin Shah Raja Ahmad.
The programme was run by the lecturer from Mara University of Technology Faculty of Administration and Policy Studies, Assoc Prof Dr Shaharuddin Badaruddin, and was attended by about 500 people.