What's In Store for other 4 States

By Raja Petra The four new states under opposition control -- Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor -- are soon going to join Kelantan in being starved of cash. The people of Kelantan endured 18 long years and it appears like they are prepared to face another 18 years without money and with little development. Terengganu, which has the same racial make-up and which fell to the opposition in 1999, lasted only one term under opposition control. In 2004, the state went back to Umno-Barisan Nasional and has remained under ruling coalition control ever since. In spite of the 8 March 2008 political Tsunami which hit most parts of the county, Terengganu did not shift. Umno-Barisan Nasional managed to keep the state and prevented the Tsunami from entering its borders. That is a more important issue than whether non-Malays should wear a songkok or not. So, if DAP no longer wants to make the headgear matter an issue, then well and good. But that still does not address the matter of: when will the State EXCO be sworn in, who are those in the State EXCO, what portfolios will they hold, have PKR, DAP, and PAS come to an agreement on how many EXCO positions each of the three parties will get, what additional portfolios will the Selangor Menteri Besar get and are his portfolios too little or too many? And even more important: what is the budget required to run the state to ensure that the operational costs, salaries, loans, etc. can be serviced? When PAS took over Kelantan in 1990, the state had debts of almost RM700 million. Today, after 18 years, Kelantan's debts are only RM11 million, which is actually just the interest on the loans and which the federal government is squeezing from the state -- the loan amount has all been repaid long ago. And they achieved this without any federal funding. On top of that, the PAS Kelantan government also managed to pay all their operational costs and salaries. No one was retrenched or suffered a salary cut except for the State Assemblymen who are paid just RM3,000 per month, way below what the other states are paying their Assemblymen. When PAS took Terengganu in 1999, the operational cost, salaries, etc., totalled RM600 million a year. A few months later the federal government withdrew the 5% Oil Royalty of RM800 million a year (now it is about RM1 billion). With the loss of this Oil Royalty, Terengganu's income got reduced from more than RM1 billion to just RM300 million a year. But it's operational cost was double that, RM600 million a year. So how to cover the RM600 million cost with the RM300 million income? Terengganu slashed its RM600 million expenditure to RM300 million so that it could make ends meet. On top of that, they abolished the toll on the Terengganu Bridge, they abolished cukai pintu (house assessment), and they introduced a welfare system for the poor and needy so that no family living below the poverty level needs to become destitute. Of course, with this type of economic programme, and with the massive federal loans incurred by the previous Umno government also to be serviced, there was absolutely no mega-developments in the state. Unfortunately, the Terengganu citizens are not as degil as the Kelantanese, and in 2004 they decided to give the state back to Umno just so that they could again see development. As soon as Umno took over in 2004, the Terengganu government reintroduced cukai pintu (they in fact tried to claim the 'back taxes' which had been waived by the previous PAS government but because of wide protests the government abandoned the idea) and now spends RM1 billion a year on frivolous and wasteful projects plus another RM1 billion or so on 'expenses'. What are we going to see in Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor? Have the new state governments sat down to crunch the figures? Without federal funding, how much money is at the disposal of the states? How much does it cost to run these states and is the income, in the absence of federal funding, enough to pay the cost of running these states? No, wearing a songkok on your head is not going to solve all these problems. You can even wear a songkok to bed and to the toilet and still you will never be able to balance a deficit budget. We need to know whether we have a government yet in Selangor, the most important of the five states under opposition control, and whether this new government has got its act together and knows what to do. We do not want in five years' time the citizens of Selangor do what the citizens of Terengganu did in 2004, give the state back to Umno-Barisan Nasional because they would rather have federal funding than a clean and efficient government. Kelantanese are Kelantanese. Even Terengganu can't tahan like Kelantan. Come the next election, will the citizens of Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor act like the Kelantanese or like those from Terengganu? That is what needs to be addressed and can only be addressed once we stop squabbling over how many EXCO positions each party should get and instead get down to running the states.