What we need to discuss in the Umno General Assembly
Salleh Said Keruak
Political parties are all the same. In the run-up to each general election, they will reveal their most impressive election manifesto and make all sorts of promises to the voters.
Then, once the election is over, the manifesto will be quietly and conveniently forgotten until the next election, when most likely a rehashed or modified version of the last general election’s manifesto will again be presented to the voters.
Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat are both guilty of not honouring their election promises, or at least not all their election promises. The truth is not all these promises can be honoured because some of the promises made are impossible to achieve. They were made just to make the manifesto look impressive.
Nevertheless, to be fair, some of these promises can be delivered. But it requires great political will to deliver them. And not all will be popular with the voters or with the grassroots supporters of the political parties.
Umno will be having its General Assembly at the end of this month. It is now about 18 months since the last general election of May 2013 and we have maybe three years or so to go before the next general election.
I would suggest that the Umno General Assembly focus on Barisan Nasional’s election manifesto that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak presented on 6th April 2013. Umno should do a post mortem on how much of these promises have been delivered and how much more needs to be done and how it can be achieved.
The test of the pudding is in the eating, as US President Bush said. Hence when Barisan Nasional faces the voters in three year’s time or so, it will need to impress the voters as to how much of its promises have been delivered and whether whatever promises it makes in the coming general election can be taken with any credibility.
ADDENDUM: BARISAN NASIONAL GE 13 ELECTION MANIFESTO http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2013/04/06/GE13-BARISAN-NASIONAL-MANIFESTO/
