Today would be the 100th day since Datuk Seri Najib became the Prime Minister of Malaysia after the 13GE. The “100-day Benchmark” of a new administration was first initiated by President Roosevelt of the United States of America.
In the first 100 days of becoming President, Roosevelt launched the New Deal; a series of domestic economic policies and initiatives. From then on, following American Presidents were evaluated on their first 100 days in government administration.
In the context of Malaysia, Prime Minister Najib launched 11 new initiatives in his first 100 days after becoming Prime Minister in year 2009. Although most of the 11 initiatives were merely superficial; such as giving Touch ‘n Go discounts and so on, it did increase his publicity at the time.
In his second term, with a single term of experience in hand, Prime Minister Najib should have been brimming with a variety of policies and ideas. Unfortunately, he did not announce any new policies or any meaningful policy changes.
In relation to the aforementioned, my office conducted a study of the Prime Minister’s public statements, as well as his statements on his Facebook and Twitter pages for 100 days. We categorised the study into 5 main topics:
1. New Policies and Policy Changes
2. Daily Administration
3. Greetings and Condolences
4. Programme Attendance
5. Others.
Throughout the first 100 days, Najib twitted 308 tweets. We were shocked to find that only four tweets were on new policies, equivalent to only one percent. This is rather worrying because there were only four new policies in the first 100 days of Najib’s administration of the country.
There were only 49 percent of daily administrative tweets, 27 percent of congratulatory and condolence greetings, five percent attendance of programmes and others, 18 percent.
At the same time, right after the 13GE, our country was experiencing critical challenges. My office chose 10 issues or major challenges experienced in the first 100 days Najib was Prime Minister (see appendix).
We categorised the 10 issues (news) into 3 categories: 1. Politics 2. Economy 3. Socio-Crime.
We are of the opinion that all these challenges require for a leader of the country who is clear, decisive and visionary. However, our findings showed that Prime Minister Najib once again failed.
In the 10 issues we focused on, the Prime Minister only answered or commented on 2 issues. He also only submitted one policy, which was to place the EC under the Parliament. Even that lacked further details after 77 days of being announced on the 1st of June 2013.
The conclusion we derived is that the Prime Minister has lost focus in leading the Country. He also lacks new ideas. The Country is now operating on autopilot. Umno conservatives have “hijacked” issues and have become the voice of the government administration. The weaknesses of the Prime Minister have led to a Country that is not in control. This is a highly worrying situation.
In my opinion, Barisan Nasional, or even Pakatan Rakyat, has to be more focused in administrative management. At the current moment, BN or even PR has not featured any new policies or ideas. The people want to see obvious changes. Therefore, policies in the interest of the people should be implemented because the people’s expectations are high.
I have yet to conduct studies on other administrations, but I would like to praise the Penang Government Executive Councillor, YB Jagdeep Singh. To my knowledge, he has worked to bring about changes to policies involving the ownership of low-cost houses, and he has tried to clean up any dishonesty. This is the kind of policies and focus that the people want.
Therefore, I call on all of the country’s administration, be it ministers at the central level or even state government executive councillors, be it Pakatan Rakyat or Barisan Nasional, to refocus on administration and implement policies in the interest of the people. Showcase better leadership and management of the country.
YB Sim Tze Tzin
Member of Parliament for Bayan Baru