PUTRAJAYA: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said yesterday the government will fulfill its promises to the people and will do all it can, summon all its strength, to make them a reality.
Even before making a promise, he said, the government would have already ensured that it was realistic within its means, and given in a responsible manner, taking into consideration the people’s well-being and long-term benefit for the country.
“Everything will be based on the main philosophy of ‘People First, Performance Now’,” he said when addressing civil servants at the 12th Civil Service Premier Gathering at Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC), here yesterday.
Present were Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and chief secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan.
The difference between a responsible party and an irresponsible one, he said, could be seen in the type of promises made during an election.
He said a responsible party would not recklessly pledge to do things, which appeared to bring shortterm benefit at first but ended up bringing longterm suffering to the people instead.
“In any case, a responsible party would rather not become popular in the short term than to end up bankrupting the country in the long term.
“One thing is for sure, a responsible party will never allow the country’s honour to be compromised or pawned.
In short, the government does not want to see what has been painstakingly built all this while being destroyed just like that,” he said.
Najib said numerous documents of pledge, in various colours – marine blue, dark green, white and now orange – had been crafted by those he described as “merchants of dream”, but he said they were merely peddling temporary gratification which might cause some to wonder in amazement over the promises that seemed to be too good to be true.
Najib said the government would not want to see the country end up having to depend on the sympathy of international financial institutions because of the folly of wanting to become a populist party.
“We will never ever allow Malaysia to diminish from an industrial and modern medium-high income country to a failed state due to fiscal irresponsibility and financial recklessness,” he said.
It was for this reason, the prime minister said, that the government, among other things, implemented subsidy rationalization because in principle, the government believed that subsidy was important to certain groups and sectors.
“We should understand, however, that the government’s financial resources are limited while the demand, naturally, is infinite.
“To make it a positive factor, subsidy must be optimised by giving it to only the targeted groups and sectors so that it truly benefits the people and the country. — Bernama