Barisan launches inclusive manifesto

PETALING JAYA: Barisan Nasional has launched its most inclusive ge­­ne­ral election manifesto containing a whopping 364 pledges that the ruling coalition has promised to deliver over the next five years.

Felda settlers, women, youth, orang asli, the people of Sabah and Sarawak, the bottom 40% households, Chinese community and other non-Muslims – almost every single community and group in the country will benefit from the various targeted measures that Barisan has committed itself to.

Carrying the theme “With BN for a greater Malaysia”, the 220-page manifesto was unveiled by Barisan chairman Datuk Seri Najib Tun Ra­­zak before a crowd of some 40,000 of the coalition’s component party members and leaders last night.

Aside from the full manifesto, Barisan also released a 32-page booklet containing a condensed version of the manifesto.

“The future of this country be­­longs to all of us, regardless of our ethnicity, religious belief or geogra­phical location,” the Prime Minister wrote in the preface of the manifesto which is divided into 14 thrusts or chapters.

Najib said that in the last five years, Barisan had managed to fulfil 99.4% of its 2013 general election manifesto pledges.

While the Prime Minister admitted that the Government had not been perfect nor fault-free, he added: “Nevertheless, we have brought about many improvements and changes that are in accordance with the people’s wishes.

“Upon this understanding, I ap­­peal to my fellow Malaysians to evaluate the performance of the Barisan Nasional government fairly and thoroughly.”

The first chapter of the manifesto tackles the cost of living, a top concern of many Malaysians.

To address the issue, Barisan pledges an extensive list of 32 mea­sures in the chapter titled “The People’s Economy”, ranging from raising the minimum wage in pha­ses to at least RM1,500 within five years to setting up a Fair Works Commission to ensure that the sala­ry levels of private sector workers are more equitable.

The children of BR1M recipients who enrol in higher education institutes will meanwhile receive a one-off assistance of RM1,500.

Women are major beneficiaries in the manifesto which contains 25 pledges for them.

Among them is a promise to allocate seven days of special leave per year for women who are caregivers to their children or immediate relatives who are ill.

Another is to facilitate the process for single women in securing loans by permitting the combination of incomes with siblings or parents who fulfil eligibility requirements.

The country’s 112,635 Felda settlers and their family members who are spread out over 317 settlements in 54 parliamentary seats nationwide are also in for many goodies promised in the manifesto.

Barisan is offering more than 10 pledges for Felda settlers, from a special incentive of RM5,000 to every Felda settler to the setting up of an up to RM300mil special fund to write off extraordinary or ex­­treme debt of all qualified Felda settlers for the next five years, starting this year.

Barisan is also promising to create three million jobs, and among the measures promised to help achieve this is by speeding up the development of the Malaysian Vision Valley, a 150,000ha area that is projected to create 1.3 million job opportunities.

On housing, the manifesto pled­ges a number of measures inclu­ding setting up a special bank to facilitate loans for affordable and low-cost housing priced RM300,000 and below.

In addition, tax incentives or development funds will be provi­ded to encourage banks and hou­sing developers to offer rent-to-own schemes.

Sabah and Sarawak will get a major boost with various pledges.

They include upgrading longhouses in Sarawak and waterhouses in Sabah, and RM2bil to improve telecommunications coverage in the two states.

Barisan has also pledged to realise the rights of the states under the 1963 Malaysia Agreement which will be done by consensus.

For non-Muslims, a special unit in the Prime Minister’s Department will be set up to promote dialogue on equality and mutual understan­ding between the races.