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Sunday, December 7, 2014

PR must search its soul for transparency

Selangor and Penang have been less than open about some projects.
Ong Kian Ming_selangor_penang_300Ong Kian Ming, you are absolutely right. The need for transparency in government has been an important talking point for the longest time, and the people deserve to know where our hard earned tax dollars are going. Disclosure should be an integral part of the tender process to keep the powers that be accountable to the people, and in a democracy, it could be said that having an open tender process is compulsory for the health of a functional government.
With the glut of opaque mega-infrastructure projects looming over the horizon and the series of accidents involving the construction of an expanded MRT/LRT line, the time has never been better for the government to start coughing up the goods so that we know that the people are getting value for money. The days of rent-seeking need to come to an end, and Kian Ming has consistently been a champion for the cause of transparency, which we at FMT applaud him for.
Kian Ming, we also ask that you keep an eye on your party and its Pakatan partners as well. Recent reports of opacity from the Pakatan controlled states of Selangor and Penang can only serve to lower the public’s confidence in the opposition. Pakatan has done a lot of hard work in showing its difference from Barisan Nasional and perhaps it deserves the votes of the people who believed in its message of change. So it would be a tragedy to squander it all by a lack of openness in the tender process.
Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng in particular has come under fire from his political opposites over the Penang Wifi project and the Penang Mega Tunnel, the latter involving a China-based company in a deal that allegedly violates Guan Eng’s own open tender policy. Guan Eng has built a reputation as a credible leader, and the rakyat will forgive him to a certain extent, but not if the Mega Tunnel project holds the possibility of bankrupting the state.
Much has been made of Selangor’s recent crises, and perhaps the state’s biggest bugbears so far have been the controversial Kidex highway and the water deal with Putrajaya.
Resident associations have accused the consortium in charge of Kidex of being evasive and manipulative, and Azmin Ali’s recent backtrack on whether or not the state government would back the project is worrying, to say the least. Whether or not the project was attached to former MB Khalid Ibrahim, it is now Azmin’s burden to bear, and he must deal with what his predecessor left him.
Perhaps even more troubling is the Dash project, gazetted in 2012-2013 under the Pakatan government. This goes against the election promises made by the coalition, and despite Pakatan’s enactment of a Freedom of Information law, efforts by the Say No to Dash group to invoke it have been fruitless thus far. This is incredibly disappointing considering the excellent start Pakatan had in Selangor when it took power of the nation’s most advanced state in 2008.
Having the public capably informed of every step of the process is vital to the continued success of Pakatan in administering these two states and showcasing them as examples of what the coalition can do with the other states.
Pakatan needs to prove that it is better than this. The opacity of projects in Penang and Selangor are potential deal breakers for the citizens there, possible proof that despite the best of intentions power ultimately corrupts.
Kian Ming must continue his crusade for transparency, and he must keep an eye on the Pakatan coalition, lest the real enemy be someone within the ranks rather than an opposing force on the field.

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