One of the major disasters that hit the state of Selangor was the 2021 flood that hit Sri Muda & the surrounding areas that saw some amazing efforts by everyone to provide food, medical care and in some cases, evacuation to the affected residents including this brave boy who had to wade deep waters just to get food for his family. Image source: Twitter@sadiqasyraf
Read these first:-
- General Elections 2022: GE15 – Pakatan Leads But With Some Bad News & Losses
- General Elections 2022: DAP & Dumb Attacks Despite Running Only 24% Seats
- General Elections 2022: Pakatan’s Action Plan – Positive & Direct Part 1
- General Elections 2022: Pakatan’s Action Plan – Positive & Direct Part 2
- Elections 101: Johore State Elections 2022 – Hard Difficult Lessons For PH
Preamble
Pakatan managed to capture one of the most developed states in Malaysia in 2008 after the major screw-ups under the administration of Khir Toyo and Pakatan has only gone from strength to strength. The state of Selangor remains the largest contributor to the GDP amounting to more than 25% of the country’s GDP with overall trade growing to RM806.3 billion in 2023 compared to RM706.02 billion in 2022.
However, there is a high risk that after almost 15 years running the state, there is a real danger of Pakatan losing the state to the more racial, religious Perikatan Nasional in the upcoming state elections who had managed to pull a big surprise in the last General Election which forced Pakatan Harapan to form a unity government with Barisan Nasional and political parties from Sabah & Sarawak.
Progress Todate
To ensure that the voters are aware of the progress of the development, the state government under Pakatan Harapan have highlighted the progress that they have done over the past 5 years since 2018.
This covers allowance made for the welfare of children born in or to B40 residents in Selangor or provides a seed fund for their higher education fund. At present, my kids do not qualify for this as they are not in the B40 category and we have already arranged private tuition for them.
This covers the business fund for micro businesses which will be helpful to reduce the poverty in the state and this includes RM5 million in the form of machinery & equipment to the Indian community. If one remembers well, the Indian community was highly affected during the Khir Toyo and saw a massive departure of support to MIC.
This covers the housing schemes that Pakatan have deployed in the state to improve the availability of houses for the residents. This includes changes & availability of insurance in the public house ownerships & rental of the public houses. Unfortunately, this came too late for us to utilise as we bought our house almost 2 years before Pakatan took over the state and they came up with these incentives.
This is one of the good initiatives by the state government where they provide financial assistance to pay for tuition at the higher learning institution but unfortunately, it is only for higher learning institutions under the state and for the M40 & B40 students in the state.
Whilst I don’t agree with the state providing general free water for all residents in the state as it could lead to wastage but it is a small gesture which is helpful for those who don’t use much water. Overall, the water bill is quite low since Selangor took over the water management, improved its delivery of clean water and improved its financials. In general, we have no complaints about the water supply in Selangor although we have incidents of water pollution by irresponsible parties.
SMART bus service is another good service for the public transport commuters in Selangor but unfortunately, there is no opportunity for me to use this service as there is still an issue of connectivity between the residential areas & the main public transport lanes. Hope that the Government will allow mini-bus services to be implemented to service these residential areas.
Whilst there are plenty of options for free medical checkups, be mindful that there are some conditions such as household income before the application is approved. Some such as blood pressure & blood sugar checking can be done without the need to visit a doctor as you can purchase the relevant devices online. Further, most panel clinics allow blood pressure checking without any cost.
Promises for Selangor
Pakatan Harapan governed states namely Selangor & Penang have a long list of incentives for the residents in their respective states as they have an abundance of cash reserves, the state economy is well managed with high investments from abroad and a good service-driven administration. So for the next 5 years, what else can be done to improve on top of the already excellent administration of the state?
Pakatan Harapan together with the other partners under the unity government is proposing 5 main offers to the residents of the state if they elect the coalition again and this covers the economy, religion, administration and social development.
Initiative No 1 is related to the economy, education & employment. An interesting point is the additional train connection from Klang to Kuala Selangor & Tanjong Karang, a famous spot for fresh seafood and seafood restaurants. The free foreign language classes should be interesting and could be my next special project if I qualify for them.
Initiative No 2 is related to religion and it is not limited to Islam although a huge bulk of it is designed for Muslims. Whilst this will hardly make a dent on a personal level, it is understandable why PH-BN is proposing massive funding & incentives related to religion. Such countermeasures will, unfortunately, continue until the point where political abuse of religious & racial extremism is nipped at the butt & is made illegal.
Initiative No 3 is related to the efficiency of state administration which is somewhat missing from PN-governed states like Kelantan. Credit where it is due, Selangor under PH administration have been rather efficient, modern and focussed on ensuring a high level of customer service. It is very easy to deal with the local authorities online namely for complaints & payments.
Initiative No 4 is related to housing & infrastructure and the key proposal is on the recycling of waste which is not in place effectively at the present time. Sweden recycles 99% of its waste so much so it is running out of trash to recycle. Malaysia should strive to that level of recycling statistics. Personally, we don’t mind separating our trash at the source so that recycling will be easier to be done later.
The other key proposal that is very interesting is the reintroduction of minibuses that will bridge the gap between the main public transportation hubs and the many residential areas.
Initiative No 5 is related to charity, security and other financial assistance and this includes maximising the SeLangkah app for the state health incentives & programs which was first developed by the State Government way before the Federal Government introduced the costly MySejahtera app.
Final Say
Based on the performance of Pakatan Harapan in the last general elections, there is a grave danger that the last 3 states (Selangor, Penang & Negeri Sembilan) that are presently governed by Pakatan may be lost to PN which is presently governing Kedah & Kelantan. PN does not have a good record governing anything but they are in power because of their racial & religious stand which influenced uneducated young voters.
Pakatan’s initiatives for the state of Selangor for the next 5 years are an improvement of the existing initiatives already in place for the last 5 years. It is proven to work & has put the state of Selangor in a very developed state compared to other states in Malaysia. Other political parties do not come close to matching these proven records by Pakatan.