| December 21, 2013
The opposition coalition will send a letter to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak urging the latter to convene a special parliamentary sitting come January.
KUALA LUMPUR: A special parliamentary sitting is needed to address the country’s worrying economic and education system, said Pakatan Rakyat.
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in a press conference said a letter will be sent to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak by Pakatan Rakyat for the sitting to be held in January.
“A special parliamentary sitting is needed to debate the country’s worsening economy and the education system,” he said, at Pakatan’s launch of the “Understand GST, Reject GST” campaign last night.
Anwar then cited the 2012 World Bank report on the country’s finance, where it was found that the government has sold the country’s assets.
The report states: “Of the additional RM11.8 billion in revenues expected to be raised compared to budget estimates, RM7.4 billion originated from non-tax sources, including RM1.4 billion of proceeds from asset sales and RM4.2 billion from the securitisation of government mortgages.”
Anwar added that to give a reasoning for selling off the county’s assets to reduce the budget deficit would only lead to a worrying and dangerous situation.
“We hope the Prime Minister will give way for MPs to debate the issue. The drastic price hikes must also be discussed further,” he said.
When asked whether he was confident that the Pakatan Rakyat’s appeal will be entertained, he said: Well, we do have 52% of the popularity votes.
“The crisis is real and it affects every single family,” said Anwar.
DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang said the decision to urge the Prime Minister was because how both the economic and education crises must be confronted.
“These things must be courageously faced since the government has failed to do so,” said Lim, adding how this goes in line with the government’s similar failure of putting the rakyat first.
He also pointed out the discrepancy between students’ results in major examinations and the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) ranking and 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) result.
“Back in my time, students hardly get straight A’s. But in the latest Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) examinations, 30,988 students obtained straights A’s.
“This means there are over 30,000 supermen and superwomen. However, why is this not reflected in international education benchmarks?” said Lim, citing PISA which revealed only 1.3% of students achieved top scores.
PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang meanwhile said the decision to urge Najib was based on the account of responsibility to the people.
“The implications to these economic problems will burden the people. The government should not cure the rakyat using painkillers without finding for solutions first,” he said.
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