Have Things Changed One Year Later?

One year has passed since the electoral "tide of change" swept through five states in various parts of the country. Have things changed for the better?

Maybe it is still early to tell. But the general feeling is that not many significant changes have taken place in these five states as far as development is concerned.

There was a celebration of sorts at Padang Kota Lama here Saturday night, with Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng taking centre-stage.

A year ago, he and a few others, mostly first-time state assemblymen from DAP, PKR and PAS, swept to power, much to their own surprise.

And Lim, also known as "Mr Opposition" and was once thrown into jail because of an offence under the Sedition Act, also became the person in charge of the state government.

Guan Eng did not fail to mention his sharp turnaround in fortunes last night to the applause of many supporters.

Besides Penang, the loose DAP-PKR-PAS coalition front also unexpectedly swept to power in Kedah, Perak and Selangor while maintaining power in Kelantan.

However, the DAP-PKR-PAS state government in Perak collapsed last month, just one month short of its first anniversary after three of its state assemblymen–two from PKR and one from DAP–decided to become independents and pledged their support for the Barisan Nasional (BN).

For politicians from both sides of the political divide, it is obvious that they will look from different perspectives when talking about the change that has taken place in these states.

For the opposition in these states–that is the BN–the performance of some of these state governments under the DAP-PKR-PAS coalition is still much debated.

BN politicians say they do not see major changes or major breakthroughs in these states despite their much-publicised pledges and initiatives to do so in the past one year.

"They have made many allegations but these are unsubstantiated. Of course they have made some advancement as well in terms of assessment collection. But this is not new as there had been some advancement in such collection previously but we never publicised it," said Gerakan secretary-general Teng Chang Yeow.

Chang Yeow, the former Penang state executive councillor in charge of tourism development and environment, said that with the tight budgetary environment, the Penang state government should find new ways to generate more revenue by now–such as utilising the local councils.

However, till now, he said, he had yet to see such efforts being made except for the efforts by the current state government continuing with the previous state government's policies.

For the others, the only change and notable achievement the current government has managed to project is that "the Penang state government is Lim Guan Eng." Period.

"Although he (Guan Eng) has state executive councillors, to the (grassroots) people the state government is Lim Guan Eng. I don't see much delegation of power and this has raised another perception–whether these people (DAP, PKR and PAS politicians) are playing any significant role in government," said Penang Gerakan chairman Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nam.

Dr Teng, a former state executive councillor himself, said the only strategy that they (DAP-led government) have implemented is to give the impression that the chief minister goes to almost all functions–sometimes 10 to 12 functions in a day with press coverage.

"This definitely takes up a lot of time and energy. As the chief minister as well as Bagan MP, I do not know how they manage the state.

"I do not know how the chief minister is able to settle down, plan and strategise solutions to problems faced by the state at this time. To him, making more statements and publicity are the main consideration," he claimed.

For political analysts, the DAP-PKR-PAS coalition state governments should not delay "upgrading work" after they have completed their "clean-up operations" in the last general election.

"What I have yet to see is any major plan or design on how to help the states that they have control over to overcome the current economic downturn. I have yet to see such a comprehensive plan. How will the people in these states get through the economic difficulties?" said Dr Oh Ei Sun, a political analyst.

Dr Oh argued that getting the economic comprehensive plan was important as many people faced the prospect of losing their jobs in the current economic situation and business environment.

He noticed that the performances in the DAP-PKR-PAS-controlled state governments varied. In Selangor, for example, the local governments seemed to have done quite well but the same cannot be said for Kedah.

However, as pointed out by Chang Yeow, whatever said and done about the DAP-PKR-PAS-controlled states, the public seem to have "tolerated" their shortcomings as public opinion towards the BN had been unfavourable since March last year in view of the latter being perceived as "abusive and corrupt."

"Whatever we did, whether it was right or wrong, we had been affected by such perceptions. They (DAP-PKR-PAS coalition) are always being pictured as raw and should be given a chance. However, anything they say about BN is usually unfavourable.

"People allow them (DAP-PKR-PAS coalition) to make mistakes because of BN's perceived image being bad. BN has to change in the shortest time possible to counter this. This has got to be corrected," Chang Yeow added.

Penang DAP chairman Chow Kon Yeow believes there is still much political goodwill by the people towards the DAP-PKR-PAS coalition.

"We are aware people are placing high hopes on us. They do criticise us and we are open to that.

"For us, the biggest challenge is how to mobilise the people to be with the state government to do all these planned changes," said Chow, who is also the state executive councillor in charge of Local Government, Traffic Management and the Environment. (Bernama)