Eradication of poverty, Free Universal Healthcare, Worker Safety - seem to be not priorities of PM Najib

Malaysia's Najib's 'six National Key Result Areas' - and, I wonder what happen to the other more important areas of concern...

What about the Eradication of poverty, Free Universal Healthcare for all, Education for all, Effective Public Transport System, Safe and Healthy Working Conditions for Workers (Worker Safety is not a BN priority - Occupational Safety and Health is no more important - 90% Transportation Companies...90% Estates..), Toll-free roads,

I have perused this report in Star, which listed out the 6 National Key Result Areas, and its short-term targets(which are in blue), and have made my own comments and observations (which are in red)..

The Government’s promise of an improved delivery system takes flesh with the Prime Minister’s unveiling of the short-term targets for the six National Key Result Areas. - Star, 28/7/2009, Targets set for the six Key Result Areas

Reduction of crime rate

> Reduce street crime, including snatch thefts and unarmed robbery, by 20% by the end of 2010.

Let us not forget the reasons why people resort to such crimes. Is it not poverty and inadequate income to live in Malaysia that has driven many to commit these kind of crimes. That is why the cause - poverty or inadequate income should be addressed, not the effects, petty crimes...

Some say that you would reduce crime rates if we start seeing policemen walking the beat again in Malaysia. If there are policemen walking around on a regular basis, the perpetrators of crime will be less motivated to commit crime. It will also give the normal person a greater sense of safety. Public relations with the police will also improve. Today, to many the Malaysian police has lost credibility.

> Re-train Rela members to help improve public perception on safety.

RELA - we all know that this volunteer-corp need to be abolished. There are too many instance of wrong-doings, by this now 'too-powerful' group of volunteers. What we need is more trained police personel, and other enforcement personel. Not more trained RELA. If you have volunteers, then increase the number of volunteer police personel, civil defence, fire fighters, etc..There really is no need for RELA. I believe that RELA is just a desparate way for UMNO-led BN to try and regain the support of younger Malaysians - and that is why there is that odd desire by our Home Minister to increase the number of RELA volunteers from about 500,000 now to 2.5 million in 3 years...

The People's Volunteer Corps (Rela) is set to increase its membership five-fold to 2.5 million by 2012, with the additional members to come from not only among the Malays but also the Chinese, Indians and others.

Rela director-general Datuk Zaidon Asmuni said the government felt that Rela was a voluntary organisation made up of people of all races, backgrounds, occupations and so on.- Bernama, 5/7/2009, Rela Targets 2.5 Million Members By 2012

On the other hand, the number of police in Malaysia is 93,348 only, and Malaysia has a population of about 27,000,000, and that means about 3.45 per 1,000 people, and that is OK - but the problem in Malaysia is their organisation. There is clearly not enough police investigators...and hence the backlogs. There is too many FRU and other police used for 'illegal' assemblies and dinners... Police training and salaries need to be up-graded.

> Upgrade equipment for enforcement agencies and increase the usage of CCTV.

CCTV - this has been talked about for years, and still even the MACC has not enough CCTVs - and if it had, then we would have a better idea as to who killed Teoh. All rooms in all police, MACC, etc stations/buildings must be first equipped with CCTV with recording capacity. It must be a right for all accused persons to receive copies of all recordings made whilst in custody of police or other enforcement officers. This is already being done in Hong Kong for some time. This would definitely decrease incidences of torture, police abuses and deaths in custody.

> Set up special courts for street crime to speed up the legal process.

Special courts - what we need is more Judges...and more courts."...The Malaysian ratio is 2.4 judges to a million people — a far cry from the ratio in India (10.5 judges), Australia (57.1), Britain (50.1) and Canada (75)..." - 2.4 judges to a million people

Combating corruption

> Updating relevant policies, procedures and enforcement to improve global perception.

> Use open or restricted tender process for all government projects with the exception of those sensitive in nature.

There really is no new suggestions made here. What we need is greater transparency. We need a Freedom of Information Act - that gives citizens the right to access all information. If there is some 'secret' information/document, then we must keep in secret only for a limited period only - say 10 or 15 years, and after that it shall become declassified and available to the public.

We need every meetings and decision making process to be documented (verbatim records) - which will make a review later to curb 'corruption' more effective. We may need an Ombudsman for Malaysia.

Widening access to affordable and quality education

What we need is for an enactment of a guaranteed right to education for all, especially children who shall have the right to free education until the age of majority. This need to be added to in our Federal Constitution. The Right To Education does not exist in Malaysia - and, in fact, Malaysia has made a reservation with regard to this obligation when they ratified the Child Rights Convention(CRC).

Affordable - let us target for FREE Education for all children (until a certain age).

> Make pre-school education part of the national education system.

No big deal - quite easily done. I thought that already it was and that all pre-schools had to teach certain things, as defined by the State. The State should set only what must be covered, and give the liberty to parents/teachers to decide what additional things that they would want for their kids.

> Ensure all normal pupils are able to read, write and count when they enter Year Four before 2012.

"Normal Pupils" - what do they mean by this?

> Reward school principals and headmasters based on the achievements of each school.

Why reward only the principals/headmasters? Why not reward all teachers and even the school itself? Why not reward the Education Ministry Official/s in charge of that school as well? What achievements are you talking about?

> Turn 100 daily smart, cluster, trust and boarding schools into high performing learning centres by 2012.

Raising the living standard of the Poor

Let's talk of erradication of poverty - not the 'raising of living standard of the Poor'

> Pay out all welfare cash aid on the first of each month from January.

Why? Is this not done at the moment? Let us also talk about not just talk about welfare - regular hand-outs to the poor. We need a solution that will make them independent of these handouts. Maybe, the transfer of some shares/unit trusts that will result in regular income...

> Create 4,000 women entrepreneurs under the Sahabat Amanah Ikhtiar programme by 2012.

How many women entrepreneurs are there now? What really is this 'Sahabat Amanah Ikhtiar programme'? The Malaysian government have had many programs to help the poor, and the lower and middle income persons in Malaysia - but alas, what was lacking was information about these programs and opportunities, and Malaysians did not know about it and never reaped its benefits. Inform the people of all that is available - use the TV, the newspapers, etc and educate people of what is available now, and who can apply for it and how...The UMNO-led BN government, many a times, seem to use its own political party members in terms of education and knowledge about such benefits/opportunities - and hence most Malaysians never even knew about it, or reaped its benefits. This has to change...Do for all like what was done with regard to the fuel subsidies...

Improving Infrastructure in rural areas

> Build 1,500km of roads in Sabah and Sarawak by 2012.

Tell us how many km roads are there already - and why only Sabah and Sarawak? Is it because UMNO-led BN is desparate that they continue to win almost all the seats in these 2 States. Roads are also needed in Pahang, Kelantan, Trengganu and the other States in Peninsular Malaysia

> Ensure that no one lives more than 5km from a tarred road in the peninsula by 2012.

Again, we see discrimination. Why not the same aspiration and target for Sabah and Sarawak? Or, is it OK for Sabahans and Sarawakians to live far away from a tarred road?

> Increase clean water supply to cover 90% of Sabah and Sarawak by the end of 2012.

What? Have developed Malaysia under the UMNO-led BN still not achieved the providing of all its people clean water supply? Clean water supply should have been available to at least 98% of the people of Malaysia. Tell us what percentage of people in Malaysia have yet to receive 24 hours clean piped-water supply.

> Increase electricity coverage in Sabah and Sarawak to 95% by end of 2012.

What? Have developed Malaysia under the UMNO-led BN still not achieved the providing of all its people with electricity? Electricity supply should have been available to at least 99% of the people of Malaysia. Tell us what percentage of people in Malaysia have yet to receive 24 hours electricity supply.

> Provide 24-hour electricity supply to 7,000 orang asli families in the peninsula by the end of 2012.

Have we not yet achieved this after 50 plus years under the UMNO-led BN. For the orang asli of peninsular Malaysia, should not we not amend the Federal Constitution to insert them as one of the proffered group for special benefits?

Improving public transport in the Medium term

> Increase the number of public transport users to 25% by end of 2012 from the present 16%.

Good thing to do - but we must have a good public transport system first. We need more busses. Maybe even bring back that very dependable and frequent mini-busses. We need public buses in the smaller towns have routes that go into housing areas.

> Add 35 sets of four-car-trains to operate on the Kelana Jaya LRT track by the end of 2012.

What we need is more LRT lines in the Klang Valley. We could also do with Trams - which could easily be running beside main roads. Motorcycle lanes need to be improved. In fact, we should also have bicycle lanes - and encourage more to start using this kind of transportations, which is definitely environment friendly. Oh yes - every bridge and road, must have clearly separated bicycle and pedestrian lanes. Of late, we see too many bridges which do not have these lanes anymore - and it is so difficult for people to walk across bridges safely..